Education and Digitalization
Highlights ifo Annual Report 2021 – An expansion of digital skills throughout the education system, a simplified regulatory framework for the digital economy, and the consequences of the pandemic for education are our focus topics in the economics of education.
Education System Must Become More Digital
The ifo Education Survey revealed which education policy measures the participants favored to overcome the current challenges.
An overview of the results:
- 74% of respondents are in favor of compulsory online classes in the event of school closures to mitigate coronavirus-related learning deficits.
- 83% are in favor of children from difficult social backgrounds receiving increased support.
- 77% are in favor of making the use of computers mandatory in school lessons even after the pandemic is over.
- Over 75% are in favor of teaching democratic, scientific, and economic skills at secondary schools.
- Large majorities are in favor of national education standards, regular comparison tests, as well as compulsory training for teachers.
Based on the findings of the Education Survey, the ifo Institute urged Germany’s new government to invest in a digital transformation of the education system. At the same time, the educational opportunities of disadvantaged children must be promoted through early-childhood, in-school, and out-of-school support. Nationwide intermediate and final examinations, as well as structural and operational reforms could help to deploy resources in the education system more effectively. Funding for universities should be augmented by deferred tuition fees and the range of clearly certified education options must be expanded.
“Education, digitalization, and climate change will be key topics, even long after the pandemic is over.”
Study: Germany Lagging Behind in Digitalization
A study for the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria (IHK) indicates that Germany ranks only in the middle of the digitalization table. The ifo researchers propose an expansion of digital skills throughout the education system, a simplified regulatory framework for the digital economy, less bureaucracy, and better access to venture capital.
The findings were presented in a joint ifo Institute-IHK press release, in a social media campaign that highlighted the individual aspects using multiple tweets over a sustained period, in the ifo Podcast “Where Is Germany in Terms of Digitization,” and as a headlining topic in an edition of ifo Schnelldienst.
Study: ifo Calls for Ways to Offset the Education Economics Effects of the Pandemic
The ifo Institute published several studies that showed the vastness of the psychological, social, and economic costs resulting from school closures, with educational losses having a life-long effect. The ifo researchers advocated that schooling be given priority in the battle against the pandemic. But if schools must be closed, there should be compulsory online classes and increased support for children from difficult social backgrounds. The recommendations were presented at two press conferences, in numerous press releases, and in guest commentary by Prof. Ludger Wößmann, Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Welt, and Süddeutsche Zeitung newspapers.
Equal Starting Oppotunities: Mentoring Programs Help Disadvantaged Adolescents
What can be done to improve the labor-market prospects of adolescents from highly disadvantaged backgrounds? One possible approach is mentoring programs that provide young people with volunteer students to support them. But do these programs really help? A study by the ifo Center for the Economics of Education found that mentoring programs significantly improve both the school performance and future-labor market prospects of disadvantaged adolescents. As part of this study, the ifo Center for the Economics of Education investigated the “Rock Your Life!” mentoring program. It found that the program significantly increased adolescents’ overall labor-market prospects and helped fully close the existing gap in this group’s prospects compared to adolescents from more advantageous socioeconomic backgrounds. The positive effects are found for all three components studied: cognitive (math grades), non-cognitive (patience and social skills), and motivational (labor-market orientation) aspects. In terms of math grades, participants in the mentoring program improved by an average of 0.42 grade increments. The program has no positive effects on adolescents whose families are better off.
These findings suggest that mentoring can be effective precisely where it supplements a lack of support from the family. When weighing the program’s benefits – measured in terms of the returns on the labor market that severely disadvantaged adolescents can expect as a result of their improved grades – against its costs, the picture is clear: the scale of the program’s effects and its relatively low costs give it a benefit-cost ratio of 15 to 1. Focusing the program even more strongly on the target group of severely disadvantaged adolescents pushes the ratio as high as 31 to 1. Although such estimates are subject to many uncertainties, the order of magnitude suggests that the benefits of the mentoring program outweigh the costs many times over.
