At a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, the latest IQB Education Trend presented to the Conference of Education Ministers was described by its authors as “not very encouraging.” According to the Institute for Quality Development in Education (IQB) in Berlin, the results in all four subjects examined, mathematics and science subjects, were worse compared to the studies conducted in 2012 and 2018.
The data show that since 2018, the proportion of ninth graders failing to meet the minimum standard for the secondary level 1 school certificate (“Erster Schulabschluss”) has risen by about three percentage points. The share of students missing the minimum standard for the secondary level 2 school certificate (“Mittlerer Schulabschluss”) has increased by nearly ten percentage points. As a result, almost nine percent of all ninth graders fall short of the minimum requirement for the secondary level 1 qualification, and as many as 34 percent fail to reach the standard for the secondary level 2.
The report notes that performance levels are particularly weak in mathematics and chemistry. The negative trend affects not only lower-performing students but also those attending high school (Gymnasium). The overall competency level in Germany has declined largely regardless of factors such as migration background or socio-economic status.
All 16 federal states are affected by these negative developments, though to varying degrees. According to the researchers, Bremen, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saarland performed significantly below the national average in all four subjects, while students in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and Saxony achieved notably higher scores.
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