German Education Minister Karin Prien has left open the possibility of imposing a quota in schools for pupils with an immigrant background. The crucial thing, she said, is that children know German when they start school. 

Speaking on WELT television, Ms. Prien described the idea of a quota as a “possible model” for schools, referring to the system used in Denmark. “I think it always makes sense to look at the experiences of other countries, whether we end up with 30% or 40%. The crucial thing is that children speak German when they start school,” she said, referring to the growing number of children entering the education system without knowing German.

The minister also referred to problems found in language and development issues even in “families that have always been” in Germany without an immigrant background, which she said were due to changes in the behaviour of parents, whom she called for greater responsibility. In another interview with BILD, the minister also referred to skills that children no longer possess, such as tying their shoelaces, cycling or swimming. The governing coalition supports the introduction of a compulsory language and development test for 4-year-olds across the country, which is now only applied in some states.

The president of the German Teachers’ Association, Stefan Duhl, on the other hand, called it an “ideal idea, which makes sense”, but pointed out the problems that its implementation would have. “If in a classroom the number of children who do not have German as their mother tongue or who have only a very imperfect knowledge of German reaches 90 per cent, then model-based learning is incomplete and it becomes difficult for children to use German outside the classroom. They still speak their mother tongue in the schoolyard.”

In the same vein, Director of Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Andreas Schleicher told BILD that the studies “definitely support the introduction of a ceiling”. Commenting on Ms. Prin’s statements, Mr. Schleicher said he sees the issue in a similar way. “We know from our comparative studies that the concentration of pupils with an immigrant background is a crucial factor for school performance. This means that school systems that evenly distribute students with immigrant backgrounds have a decided advantage,” he said.

In an attempt to calm the debate, a spokesman for the Department of Education said there was no specific proposal, but the minister referred to “one of many possible models.” The debate was prompted, among other things, by the results of the latest PISA survey, which for Germany, in mathematics and language, were the worst since its introduction in 2000.