In surveys conducted by their professional associations, teachers at secondary schools came out in favor of reintroducing binding primary school recommendations with a clear majority. The release more than ten years ago has always been highly controversial in Baden-Württemberg. The topic should therefore also play a role this Tuesday, when Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and Minister of Education Theresa Schopper (both Green) want to speak to journalists about the provision of lessons.
According to information from Monday, 4,439 teachers took part in the survey by the Realschule teachers’ association, of which almost 85 percent spoke out against the current regulation. Parents decide for themselves which secondary school their children go to after primary school. 1,097 teachers took part in the survey by the Association of Philologists, which mainly represents high school teachers. Almost 94 percent of them voted for a return to a mandatory primary school recommendation. Südwestrundfunk (SWR) first reported on the results of the surveys.
“The release of the primary school recommendation in 2012 was a cardinal error in Baden-Württemberg’s education policy, which has significantly strengthened the downward trend in school educational success in BW,” said state chairman Ralf Scholl. The feedback from the teachers is unmaskingly clear: “When 80 percent of the teachers complain about the constant experiences of failure of the overwhelmed children and their complete frustration when they finally change the type of school – often years too late – then that is also a strong accusation against that institutionalized educational losers are produced in this way, although that could be avoided.”
According to the announcement, Karin Broszat, state chairwoman of the Realschule Teachers’ Association, said: “The number of school biographies that have now been broken, if not shattered, due to the non-binding nature of the school recommendation is blatant come to an end!” The free will of the parents with regard to the choice of secondary school has turned into mere arbitrariness. Responsible politics must act. “The binding primary school recommendation will not be able to solve all problems in the education system, but they will obviously be able to solve them, without cost and without expensive programs.”
Support comes from the FDP: “While the green-led state government continues to enforce its educational ideologies with a crowbar, the practitioners on site speak a clear and unequivocal language: the binding nature of the primary school recommendation must go back,” emphasized the chairman of the state parliamentary group, Hans-Ulrich Rülke, in a message. “Since they were abolished in 2012, the quality of our education has plummeted.” The Free Democrats were the only parliamentary group in the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg to introduce a bill on this.
The education policy spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament, Thomas Poreski, on the other hand, explained: “We reject the idea of ????returning to a supposedly “good old time” that actually never existed. Instead of looking in the rear-view mirror like the associations, we should orientate ourselves towards promising models.” For example, the federal states that are ahead of Baden-Württemberg in the PISA education comparison have no binding primary school recommendation. “Baden-Württemberg has to measure itself against the Champions League of educational winners – not with the district class,” says Poreski. The Greens are in favor of tailor-made transitional advice that supports parents and children in the often groundbreaking decision to go to secondary school.
In Baden-Württemberg, the primary school makes a recommendation as to which type of secondary school is suitable for a child after the 4th grade. It is issued at the beginning of the 2nd half of the 4th grade together with the half-year reports and is usually based on their grades. As the Ministry of Education announced in February, more and more parents are deciding against this advice. For example, every tenth child who switched to a grammar school last summer did not have the appropriate recommendation.
The SPD is also against the reintroduction of the binding recommendation. The CDU recently joined the Green coalition partner, but showed a basic willingness to talk. In view of the survey results, the state chairman of the Junge Union, Florian Hummel, demanded that the Greens parliamentary group should also stop “preventing the reintroduction of the binding recommendation for primary schools for ideological reasons”. From his point of view, this would be in the interest of the students.
SWR report
