Germany’s schools are under growing strain from migrant pupils, according to a new study that highlights deep regional differences in education quality.
Researchers from the German Economic Institute (IW) claim that the proportion of pupils at risk from weak reading skills has risen sharply, with IW expert Axel Plünnecke describing 2015 as a “watershed”—after which schools became increasingly overwhelmed by high levels of immigration.
States with higher shares of pupils from non-German-speaking households tend to perform worse.
In the state of Bavaria, which is second on the education ranking list, only 27.7% of children grow up with a mother tongue other than German. The figure is 58.7% in Bremen, which ranked last in the overall comparison.
A quarter of foreign pupils in Bremen leave school without a qualification, compared with a national average of 17.8%.
Saxony defended its first-place position in the rankings for the 20th consecutive year, followed by Bavaria and Hamburg.
The report credits Saxony’s success to highly qualified teaching staff and a strong tradition of all-day childcare (despite recent political conflicts). Some 13% of Saxon kindergarten staff hold a university degree, almost double the national average, contributing to higher reading and maths scores among primary pupils.
Overall, however, school quality is in decline. Plünnecke warned that Germany has “lost substance” since 2013 in areas such as integration and equal opportunities.
