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EDUCATION

German kids get glowing report for their English skills

As if multilingual Germans don't already put many English-speakers to shame, now the younger generation is improving their English skills even more.

German kids get glowing report for their English skills
Photo: DPA.

German ninth-graders exceeded expectations in their English tests last year, according to a report on Friday by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK).

Four out of ten ninth graders were already a year ahead in achieving certain English language standards, which are expected of tenth graders.
 
Some 37,000 boys and girls from 1,700 schools took part in the competence study.
 
While their English competence “improved considerably” compared to previous years, according to the report, ninth graders’ German skills stagnated.
 
Bavaria was at the head of the pack in a regional comparison of English skills, while Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony showed great improvement over the last analysis of 2008-2009, and Bremen and Berlin remained at the tail end. The KMK noted that these two struggling states also have more children from immigrant backgrounds who often have a more difficult time in school.
 
Germany must address the “important task of reducing the connection between educational success and social background,” the KMK stated.
 
Still, the achievement gap between pupils with and without immigration backgrounds has shrunk when it comes to English-learning, and is now “clearly smaller than within the subject of German”. Therefore Germany must find a way to better tap into the language-learning potential of immigrant children, the KMK argued.
 
Federal Education Minister Johanna Wanka noted that there is still work to be done to decrease regional differences in education.
 
“Overall the differences between the states in terms of performance are still too big,” Wanka said, adding that “social background still has too great an influence on the skills students acquire.”
 
“We need Germany’s children and teens to have comparable opportunities from the start.”
 
Green party education expert Özcan Mutlu argued that the the German education system should do more to reach students who come from immigrant families.

“States in which there are many children with immigrant backgrounds are in the lower ranks,” Mutlu said. “This can and should not be accepted anymore within the context of Germany’s immigration society.”

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EDUCATION

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

Children between ages 6-9 years should be allowed admittance to after-school recreation centers free of charge, according to a report submitted to Sweden’s Minister of Education Lotta Edholm (L).

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government. 

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded. 

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.” 

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres. 

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level,  people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used. 

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said. 

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