EIt was a big blow not only for Hamburg, but also for the Conference of Education Ministers: Hamburg's School Senator Ties Rabe (SPD) unexpectedly resigned on Monday for health reasons. He does not have a life-threatening illness, but is too exhausted and susceptible to infection to continue his work. His successor is to be the 45-year-old vocational school teacher and previous parliamentary group leader Ksenija Bekeris (SPD).

Rabe is a teacher of German, religion and history, was the longest-serving minister of education and held his office for 13 years. At the end of the legislative period in 2025 (Elections will take place in Hamburg in February 2025), Rabe would have retired anyway. Now his aim is to organize a transition that is as seamless as possible and to give the new education senator a good induction period. Rabe's experienced State Councilor Rainer Schulz is still in office.

Rabe pursued his goals strategically and with perseverance, even in the face of resistance from teachers, unions and associations. With the Hamburg Institute for Educational Monitoring and Quality Development, he ensured that Hamburg's performance results improved. In the educational trend of the Institute for Quality Development in Education (IQB) in 2011, the ninth graders from Hamburg were still in the last third of the rankings, but in some skills they now reach the top places and compete with Saxony and Bavaria.

Comprehensive all-day care

Rabe has expanded comprehensive all-day care in Hamburg (99 percent of primary schools are all-day schools), promoted school construction and introduced an allocation of funds based on the social index, so that schools in hot spots receive significantly more money and teachers.

The results of regular school inspections in Hamburg are public and valued by schools because they show development opportunities. Inclusion in mainstream schools was expanded significantly during his term in office, but was also criticized. The mandatory “interview procedure for four-and-a-half-year-olds”, in which language proficiency is determined, is considered to be exemplary nationwide. If deficits become apparent, the child must attend support.

In the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK), Rabe held the social democratic states together. Together with the coordinator of the Union-governed states, Hesse's former culture minister Alexander Lorz (CDU), who will now become Hesse's finance minister, he campaigned for more comparability and quality in the system. He was surprisingly able to express the opinion of education senators from Berlin and Bremen, who tried to undermine the agreements that had just been reached through evasive maneuvers. Rabe enjoys great respect across all parties.