Baden-Württemberg: Student council wants modernization of teaching

Before the start of the new school year, students in Baden-Württemberg see a lot of catching up to do in education policy. “At school, we receive outdated lessons, with outdated teaching concepts and out-of-date content,” criticizes the State Student Advisory Council in a letter to Education Minister Theresa Schopper (Greens) and other stakeholders in education policy.

The advisory board also criticises poor school facilities and the overburdening of teachers due to increasing demands outside the classroom. One consequence of this is the poor performance of pupils in comparative tests.

The chairman of the State Student Council, Joshua Meisel, cited German lessons as an example of outdated teaching. “The analysis of poems is something that many students find offensive,” he said. This aspect is not relevant to students’ everyday lives and should be treated less intensively. “Instead, content that is needed more urgently should be integrated,” said Meisel. From the student representative’s point of view, a stronger focus on argumentative writing would make sense – also in order to be able to better recognize fake news and populism.

The student representatives consider the state government’s response to the performance problems to be inadequate. “The education reform presented before the summer holidays is hardly a major breakthrough,” the letter states.

Before the summer holidays, the Green-Black coalition had launched several educational reforms, including the return to the nine-year grammar school, a large package of language support in daycare centers and elementary schools, and a binding primary school recommendation. In the future, students will learn skills in the areas of computer science, artificial intelligence, and media education in a separate school subject, and there are also plans to strengthen democracy education in grammar schools.

The students welcome the strengthening of democracy education, but it does not go far enough for them. “Anyone who wants to implement real democracy education in schools must not only deal with democracy theoretically in class, but also teach it practically on site,” she wrote to Minister Schopper. From the perspective of the State Student Council, strengthening the right of students to have a say on site would be important.

In their letter, the Minister of Education and the education politicians are calling on the students to set up an inquiry commission to develop a long-term perspective for schools in the southwest. “This commission should expressly aim to effectively combat the problems already mentioned,” the students write.

Such a commission could be set up by the state parliament and would include not only members of parliament but also experts. However, talks between the government and the opposition about an education alliance – i.e. education reforms that should last for the duration of a legislative period – failed at the beginning of May.