Germans See Quality Losses at School

When asked about what the serious problems are, 77% of Germans said the shortage of teachers, 68% said a lack of school funding, 66% said the system inertia that means changes take too long, and 61% said learning delays due to Covid-19. Insufficiently renovated school buildings were problematic for 57% of respondents.

Survey participants (79%) said the main way to combat the teacher shortage is to provide teachers with additional qualifications so they can teach subjects currently in short supply. Retraining other professionals as teachers for these scarce subjects also received a high approval rating of 64%. In contrast, 81% of respondents oppose increasing class size. “Germans’ willingness to fund education remains high: 74% think the government should spend more on education – by far the highest level of support among the categories of public spending,” Wößmann adds. An increase in defense spending, for example, is supported by 38%, up from just 9% in 2014.

Of those surveyed, 68% were in favor of replacing classwork with Germany-wide standardized testing in mathematics and German. This high level of approval for standardized tests has been evident in a similar form since 2015. Standardizing the school-exit exams (Abitur) throughout Germany also meets with high approval (86%). Large majorities are against abolishing the grading system (73%) and in favor of having low-performing students repeat years (78%). Germans are largely in favor (76%) of measuring the quality of secondary schools on the basis of student satisfaction, among other things. A total of 78% are in favor of requiring all schools to publish standardized annual reports, for example on dropout rates and cancelled classes, so that the quality of schools can be compared across Germany.

When it comes to digitalization, 49% of respondents believe that it produces more winners than losers. This opinion is more confident than in 2017, when it was held by only 43%. There are large majorities in favor of the federal government equipping all students at secondary schools with computers or laptops (65%) and requiring

teachers to undergo annual training in digital skills (81%). Germans’ openness to students using computers for independent learning increased between 2014 and 2017, but declined again in 2023. The majority of Germans oppose teaching the use of artificial intelligence and chatbots in the classroom (54%) and favor forms of testing that prevent the use of these digital tools (55%).

With regard to school projects outside the regular curriculum, Germans particularly support subsidies for school cafeterias to offer healthier lunches at reasonable prices (84%), drug prevention courses (81%), and nutrition counseling (73%).