Dresden (dpa / sn) - Saxony's fourth graders show comparatively good performance in German and mathematics. This emerges from the 2021 education trend of the Institute for Quality in Education, which the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) presented on Monday in Berlin. According to this, the Saxon schoolchildren take first place in the competence areas of mathematics and reading, while they rank second in listening and spelling.
Minister of Education Christian Piwarz called the performance of the Free State in the education trend "gratifying". However, the study also shows that it is becoming increasingly difficult to teach basic skills in primary school. "It is all the more important that we finally stop declaring schools to be society's repair shops. Schools cannot compensate for all undesirable developments in society," explained the CDU politician.
With a view to Germany as a whole, the study authors describe their results as worrying. A significant proportion of the students miss the minimum standards - 18 percent in listening, almost 19 percent in reading, 22 percent in mathematics and around 30 percent in spelling. There is some evidence that the corona restrictions could have had a negative impact. Children depend on a reliable school system.
For the educational trend, the status of the students is examined at intervals of five years. Between April and August 2021, around 27,000 fourth graders were tested in reading, listening, spelling and mathematics at almost 1,500 schools across Germany.
