As a consequence of the poor performance of primary school pupils in comparative studies, North Rhine-Westphalia wants to set up a programme to identify the individual support needs of boys and girls at an earlier stage. In a special meeting of the school committee of the state parliament, Minister of Education Dorothee Feller (CDU) also announced that, unlike in the past, there will be scientifically sound focal points and learning materials throughout the state in the future; currently, teachers have to put together their own support materials.

Reiner Burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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According to the latest IQB education trend, around a quarter of primary school pupils in North Rhine-Westphalia do not meet the minimum requirements in reading, writing, arithmetic, listening and emotional-social development. The international reading study IGLU recently confirmed that almost every fourth-grader in North Rhine-Westphalia cannot read properly. "These are alarming figures that we will not accept under any circumstances," said Minister Feller. Due to the great importance of reading competence for the acquisition of further skills as well as arithmetic, the promotion of reading will begin.

Corresponding materials are to be presented to school principals at a major digital event on 12 June. After the summer holidays, mandatory reading times will be introduced in the timetables of primary schools in Germany's most populous state under the short formula "3 times 20 minutes".

Emotional-social development

In addition to the promotion of reading and arithmetic, the focus is on the third basic competence, emotional-social development. It is of fundamental importance so that the children can concentrate on the lessons. "Children who have difficulties in the emotional-social area and are not developed in an age-appropriate manner have little strength to be able to engage in school content such as reading, writing and arithmetic," said Feller.

In addition, the minister wants to set up a "uniform screening" so that the need for support is already identified at the time of primary school registration. Many schools already use such a procedure, but it is not yet mandatory. The minister did not provide more concrete information on the planned early detection programme on Thursday.

Feller said that primary schools had been subjected to a lot of unrest and extra work in recent years with constant innovations. That is why it is now a matter of reliability and long-term structures. A look at Hamburg – which performed well in the IQB study – shows that patience is needed to improve basic skills.

Feller: Not a sprint, but a marathon

The minister spoke of a mammoth task that had to be accomplished not in a sprint, but in a marathon. "The example of Hamburg – where the turnaround has been successful – also shows that a reversal of the negative trend is not possible overnight." It took Hamburg a decade to do this, said the minister, who has been in office since last summer, referring to the failures of her predecessors. "In order to achieve positive results tomorrow, targeted measures and effective support for our primary schools would have been needed more than ten years ago. These shortcomings cannot be made up for in a few weeks."

The SPD accused the Minister of Education of shying away from fundamental changes and improvements in the education system. Half a year after the IQB education trend, the black-green state government of Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) offers the program "3 times 20 minutes of reading" per week as the only concrete measure to strengthen basic skills.

According to Engin, the minister hid behind "a bunch of materials" in the committee, which can only be effective if there are enough teachers and enough time. In the midst of the education catastrophe, Feller still owes an overall concept. This includes that children are examined at the age of four and a half years by doctors of the health department in the daycare centers for their methodological, linguistic and social development, so that the boys and girls can then be specifically supported in the year before school enrollment.