Reading, writing, arithmetic – the so-called basic skills have deteriorated in elementary school students. The teachers’ association is now proposing to abandon English classes in favor of “basics”.
The President of the German Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, has spoken out in favor of doing without English classes in elementary schools.
“We believe that English lessons can actually be dispensed with and that you can switch to reading lessons, for example,” he said in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. “We have to pay more attention to the basics in elementary schools, i.e. reading skills, writing skills, arithmetic,” he explained.
The background is the international primary school reading study (igloo) presented in May, according to which one in four fourth graders in Germany cannot read properly. Internationally, elementary school students in Germany perform worse in reading skills than their peers in many other countries. The IQB education trend, a regular test series among fourth-graders, had shown last year that they had fallen behind significantly in the so-called basic skills in math and German in recent years.
Set the right priorities
At some schools, English lessons could also make sense, explained Meidinger. “But we also have classes, there we have 70, 80, 90 percent of children with an immigrant background who hardly have enough knowledge of German,” he emphasized. Because you set the wrong priorities with the English lessons. The knowledge that primary school students are taught is sometimes so different that in secondary schools “almost everyone starts from scratch anyway,” said the teacher.
Eliminating English classes is not the only way to better teach core subjects to elementary school students. Meidinger pleaded for more pre-school support. “And of course we have to take measures against the shortage of teachers. Otherwise we will never get the problem under control.”
The primary school association is skeptical about Meidinger’s push for English lessons. The proposal certainly does not solve any of the real challenges, said Edgar Bohn, chairman of the dpa. “Primary schools are underfunded, overburdened with tasks and increasingly employing staff who are not adequately qualified for the specific and challenging task of beginning teaching.”
Source: Stern
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