In February 2019 in Berlin: Two students report to class.
Image: Picture Alliance
When comparing performance, Berlin is constantly in second to last place. The school authorities now want to focus more on quality from daycare onwards. In the future, good grades will be more important when transferring to high school.
bErlin's school senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) no longer wants to leave the decision about the type of secondary school to parents alone in the future. Only recently, a country evaluation of last year's PISA data showed that countries with clear access regulations for high school, such as Bavaria and Saxony, achieve performance results above the OECD average. Baden-Württemberg, which in previous years had always been above the OECD average, fell below the average immediately after the abolition of the so-called primary school recommendation, which regulates the transition to high school. The Berlin numbers speak a language of their own: 50 percent of students have so far switched to high school after the six-year primary level. 34 percent of students without a high school recommendation had to leave school again.
In the future, a grade average in German, mathematics and the first foreign language of 2.3 will apply to transferring to high school. Anyone who does not achieve the average can apply for trial lessons, during which performance and other skills are used to assess their suitability for secondary school. Berlin is thus aligning its regulations with Brandenburg, said Günther-Wünsch, who comes from Saxony. The probationary year for all seventh grade students is no longer required.