Overview
- The latest PISA round shows German 15‑year‑olds achieving their weakest results since the study began, with declines in reading, mathematics and science.
- Regional parliaments have moved the issue to the top of their agendas, and opposition politicians in Schleswig‑Holstein say teacher posts have fallen by more than 100 even as student numbers rose.
- Teachers’ unions and a Bavarian school leader report a hiring moratorium in parts of Bavaria and growing use of career changers and support staff without formal teaching degrees to keep compulsory lessons running.
- Experts and school leaders point to long‑term causes including teacher overload and sickness, larger and more heterogeneous classes, lingering COVID learning loss and distracting smartphone use, while PISA highlights that parental education still strongly predicts pupil success.
- Calls for action focus on boosting early childhood education quality, expanding school social work and psychological services, and learning from the 2000 PISA shock that led to nationwide reforms.