Overview
- Lower Saxony confirms that written long division will be taught in full from year 5, with only partial steps introduced in primary grades.
- Education minister Julia Willie Hamburg says the method is not being abolished, countering reports of a complete phase-out.
- Harpstedt’s primary head welcomes extra time for other content but questions moving a complex skill to later years.
- The local secondary head expects to adapt curricula and sees potential benefits if groundwork from primary school is solid, noting a two-year runway.
- Didactics commentators warn the partly written approach favors “nice” numbers, increases mental load, and limits teachers’ error diagnostics compared with the standard algorithm, while other states such as Saxony keep both.