TOP NOTCH EDUCATION
In 2021 as well, Saxony defended its first place in a comparison of the educational systems of all German federal states – already for the sixteenth time in a row now! This was reported by the Education Monitor 2021, a comparative study conducted by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) on behalf of the Initiative for a New Social Market Economy (INSM).
Saxony scored high points in most of the 12 fields under investigation. Saxony achieved the top position with a total of 66.8 points.
Saxony exhibits specific strong points, for example, in the categories Support Infrastructure, Overall School Quality, Research Orientation (in each instance, 1st place) as well as Avoiding Educational Deprivation and Internationalization (in each instance, 2nd place).
Saxony has high rates of full time education and supervision in children’s day care centers and primary school Grundschulen. For example, 88.7 percent of the primary school Grundschule pupils in the Federal State (German national average: 47 percent) attended either the Offene Ganztagsschule (an all-day school providing traditional part time education and additional voluntary afternoon care programs) or the Gebundene Ganztagsschule (an all day school consisting of lessons which are distributed over the day while the entire daily program – also referred to as rhythmitized daily routine – is compulsory for all pupils). With 77.1 percent, the proportion of pupils at Ganztagsschulen all day schools at the Secondary Level I was also significantly above the average (the German national average: 47.9 percent).
In addition, 11.7 percent of the staff in child care facilities held a university degree (the German national average: 7.3 percent).
The superb prerequisites for improving social participation really pay off when it comes to the objective of preventing educational deprivation. Educational research focusing on ninth graders revealed that the risk group is relatively small in Saxony. The proportion of those pupils who attend 9th grade and who have only very limited skills in reading, mathematics and natural sciences is, thus, particularly small in Saxony. When it comes to reading and mathematics, Saxony got the highest score among all German federal states and in natural sciences, the second-best score.