In Thuringia, the proportion of school leavers without a degree has been relatively high for years. Even in a nationwide comparison, the Free State is not doing well, as a study now shows. The authors warn of the consequences.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - The number of school leavers without a degree has risen again in Thuringia. According to figures from the Thuringian Ministry of Education, which are available to the German Press Agency, 1,660 boys and girls finished school last year without a degree. The year before it was 1453 and before that 1302.
Although the total number of students and graduates increased during this time, the proportion of school leavers without a degree increased slightly from general education schools from seven percent in 2020 to nine percent last year. In 2021, the share was eight percent.
In an evaluation commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the 1,302 school leavers without a degree accounted for 8.3 percent of the resident population of the same age. In a nationwide comparison, Thuringia was in the third-worst place. Only in Bremen and Saxony-Anhalt were the rates even worse. Thuringia's neighboring state of Bavaria did best - with 5.1 percent.
People without qualifications have a higher risk of ending up in precarious jobs. According to the study, many of the current graduates without a degree are at risk of joining the approximately 1.7 million young adults aged 20 to 30 without training who were living in Germany as of 2021.
In view of the "frighteningly high numbers", measures to reduce the quota are indispensable, and the focus of efforts should be on boys and schoolchildren with a migration background, according to the study.
The Bertelsmann Foundation also recommended documenting the skills that the young people had learned in addition to the classic diploma: This would increase the chance of an apprenticeship even without a formal qualification. Another lever is the training guarantee. The traffic light parties have anchored this in their coalition agreement.
A look at the long-term evaluation shows that the proportion of school leavers without a qualification is subject to fluctuations. According to data from the Ministry of Education, between 1993 and 2002 the proportion in general education schools was continuously over 10 and sometimes 13 percent. In the years 2009 and 2010 as well as in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 it was 9 percent each, in the years in between it was slightly lower.
