Do Youths See Education Policy Differently to Adults?

To date the ifo Education survey has asked Germany’s adult population for its opinion on economic policy topics. This year youths, who are effectively the current users of the school education system, were also surveyed on selected topics. Comparing the results of a representative sample of 1,000 youths aged from between 14 and 17 years and those from a sample group of adults reveals interesting overlaps and differences in what youths and adults think about education policy. A majority of both adults and youths favour the introduction of nationwide standardised school-leaving exams, oppose the abolition of school grades and favour students repeating classes if they perform poorly. The vast majority of youths oppose separate-sex teaching in math and languages. In sport opinions are more divided, with a small majority supporting separate-sex teaching, especially among girls. Large majorities of both girls and boys would like to see topics like equal opportunities for men and women, violence and abuse of power by men and sexual harassment covered at school.