Despite open schools and additional support hours, the assessment of parents has become significantly more negative in the past year – at the beginning of 2021 only 28 percent rated their children as overwhelmed. For its school cost studies, SORA regularly surveys up to 2,000 households with children on school-related topics on behalf of the AK. For the last interim survey in January 2022, there were 539 parents.
Negative grade development
The “learning gap” is also reflected in other questions: 38 percent answered in the affirmative when asked whether their children recently had worse grades on homework or tests than usual. Parents, at least one of whom had a university degree, agreed significantly less often (27 percent) than those without an academic degree (43 percent). In general, significantly more respondents identified negative grade development than in February 2021 (26 percent).
The various questions about mental health and school anxiety show a differentiated picture over time: When asked in October 2020 whether their child is generally more anxious than before the pandemic, 30 percent answered “a little more” or “a lot more”. This percentage then fell to 17 percent in a wave of surveys two months later, only to snap back to 30 percent two months later in February 2021. In the most recent wave of surveys, the proportion is already 44 percent.
Great fear of going to school
Things are a bit different when it comes to school anxiety. Here the values have hardly changed since the previous year: 29 percent of parents currently state that their children no longer want to go to school – in February 2021 it was 26 percent. 43 percent of parents recently registered a great fear of upcoming exams or schoolwork (February 2021: 39 percent).
In a broadcast, the AK demands that the additional learning and support hours be made available for a longer period of time. In addition, an “opportunity index” must be implemented according to social criteria, through which schools in poorer locations receive more funds. Further demands are an increase in the school fund to promote class community and a joint school for children up to 14 years of age.
Source: Nachrichten
