German Schools - Ripe for Reform?

"Education is the central social question of this century," German chancellor Gerhard Schröder told parliament on Thursday. It was the first time ever that a German chancellor chose the topic of education and training for an official government address. And the controversial debate that followed the chancellor's speech showed that the topic is quickly becoming one of the key issues of this year's election campaign.

Education for all

In Thursday's speech, Chancellor Schröder (photo) said qualified training was the key to the job market, to social recognition and therefore the best way to prevent joblessness. He said guaranteeing access to quality education for everyone was "the best investment in the future."

With these statements, Schröder echoed an idea that's been dear to the heart of Germany's Social Democrats for decades: providing education for children from all walks of life – especially for kids with working-class backgrounds.

Education shouldn't be a privilege of the rich, the Social Democrats argued in the 1970s and started ambitious student loan programs. When Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democrats came to power in the early 1980s, these student aid programs were considerably cut back.

On Thursday, Gerhard Schröder revived the idea of making education more accessible. He told parliament that all students should receive support – irrelevant of their family's social background. "We cannot afford to let a single talent go to waste," the chancellor said.

All-day schooling

One way to make education accessible for children from poorer families is all-day schooling. If kids are taken care of at schools throughout the day, both parents are free to work. But if only one of them can earn money because the other has to take care of the kids in the afternoons, the family budget is sometimes so tight that parents urge their children to leave school at an early age to get a job.

Consequently, Gerhard Schröder promised to promote all-day schooling in Thursday's address to parliament. He announced he would allocate four billion euro ($ 3.77 billion) to create 10,000 new all-day schools within the next four years. He also pointed out that his government had increased the education budget by 21 percent since he came to power in 1998.

"Save Education"

According to a study commissioned by Germany's teachers' union GEW, more than half of all Germans support the introduction of more all-day schools. The study's author, Hans-Günter Rolff, said Germany had failed miserably in supporting children from poorer families or with an immigrant background.

On Wednesday, GEW called a demonstration in Berlin. 30,000 teachers and educators took to the streets of the German capital, demanding a reform of the country's education system. The head of GEW, Eva-Maria Stange, voiced strong support for the Chancellor's plans to strengthen the education sector. She criticized plans of the German federal states, or Länder, to cut back on education.

The Berlin demonstration marked the start of a country-wide GEW campaign called "Save Education". Over the next few weeks, GEW and the Federal German Parents Association Bundeselternrat (BER) will be highlighting the miserable state of the German education system through posters, discussions and demonstrations across the country.

Education for export

Since Germany is a country low in natural resources, the only thing the country can export is high quality products and technical know-how. And that's what makes education and training vitally important for Germany: the country will only be able to succeed in a globalized world economy in the future if German workers, engineers and scientists maintain their high level of training and efficiency.

Most Germans are aware of the fact that the country can only keep its edge on the competition through good training. That's why Germans were shocked earlier this year, when an international study revealed that students here were lagging far behind school kids in other countries in basic skills like reading and mathematics. German students finished far behind schoolchildren from Finland, Spain, Italy and the U.S.

Up to then, Germans had been proud of their education system, thinking it one of the best in the world. But the international "PISA" test, in which the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) compared students in 32 countries, shocked the Germans out of their complacency. The "PISA" study put German schools in 25th place.