Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) has underscored the importance of early childhood education, warning that the gap in educational outcomes begins from the moment a child is born. Speaking at the presentation of this year's national Education Report on Monday, Prien stressed the need to reach children before they ever set foot in a classroom.
"The educational scissors open from birth," Prien said, calling it more important than ever to reach children in the pre-school years. The report placed equity of opportunity and the securing of skilled labour at the centre of its findings.
Prien acknowledged that existing instruments, including the right to full-day care in primary schools set to take effect this summer, and the Startchancen Programme supporting schools in disadvantaged areas, represent solid progress. However, she said children continue to arrive at school with what she described as "dramatically different learning starting positions," whether in terms of vocabulary, language development, social-emotional development, or motor skills.
She raised the question of what is happening within families during a child's earliest years, and what is taking place in nurseries and childminding settings. Addressing this, she said, would require "a very close alliance between the federal government, states, and municipalities," as well as horizontal cooperation between families, child and youth welfare services, and local integration organisations.
Prien announced her intention to bring the Kita Quality Development Act, as set out in the coalition agreement, to cabinet before the summer break. She identified the final year of nursery education and language support during that period as a particular priority. "We need mandatory language assessment levels and mandatory language support for children who require it," she said.
At home, Prien said, the responsibility lies with families, encouraging them to read aloud to their children more often and to reduce screen time, which she noted is already affecting very young children. She called for more advisory work in this area.
She also highlighted the growing pressures on the school system itself, citing the influence of social media and the integration of children with migrant backgrounds as factors placing additional strain on educational institutions.
The Education Report documented a decline in mathematical competency: in 2024, nearly a quarter of pupils aiming for at least a middle school certificate failed to meet the minimum standard for that qualification, nine percentage points more than in 2018. The proportion of students leaving school without any qualification rose to eight percent. Educational inequality, the report noted, is not a matter of individual schools or phases of education, but a "persistent structural question of the system."
"We are talking about a task for society as a whole," Prien said. She called for greater flexibility in the deployment and qualification of staff within educational institutions. This must include extensive continuing professional development for teachers and a move towards what she termed "multiprofessionalism in schools."
Educators, social pedagogues, and school psychologists, she argued, are not a "nice to have", they must be actively integrated into the education and upbringing of children in order to achieve genuine equity of opportunity.
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