Abstract:

The article asks the question of how the performance and educational level of primary school pupils in Germany has developed in recent years, particularly with regard to the most populous federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The aim is to find out whether the results of the nationwide IQB study of 2021 can be confirmed at a randomly selected location in NRW, namely that the educational level in the classes is falling significantly. The fourth graders in the nationwide study have a deterioration in their performance in all tested areas: Reading and comprehension, writing and mathematics. In some federal states, including North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany, the results are particularly poor.
This study searchs for causes: What conditions lead to pupils' performance being perceived as increasingly poor? To this end, in Mönchengladbach, NRW, at a community primary school, eight teachers were interviewed between October and the beginning of December 2022 to find out how they assess the performance of their pupils, whether they can confirm the picture of the studies. The primary school is located in a socially deprived district characterized by poverty, high unemployment and a high proportion of migrants. The interviews are open structured and the data was analysed through open, axial and selective coding. The research confirms the poor results of the nationwide studies. According to the interviews, the perceived poor performance of pupils in the basic skills of listening, reading, writing and arithmetic is the same in all classes. Many Children have problems in concentration. The non-existing parental work, the language barriers, the different cultural understandings, the question of responsibility for the child are the main problems. Solution: If the children no longer speak German as their mother tongue, significantly more hours would have to be taught in German as a foreign language. In addition, multiprofessional teams of social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists and afternoon schooling would be necessary. At the school development level, teaching content should be adapted to the high level of immigration, teacher training must be sensitized to this, as well as to the issue of inclusion.

Keywords:

Lack of basic competence, high migration, parental work.