Changes in the educational system in Baden-Württemberg

Last Updated on March 25, 2025

This year, two rather significant changes have taken place in Baden-Württemberg: firstly, the gymnasiums are switching back to 9 years of learning, and secondly, they are again trying to limit the free choice of the type of secondary school. One is connected with the other: it is believed that increasing the number of years will attract those parents who are dissatisfied with the intensity of the current gymnasial education.

Education system in Baden-Württemberg
Other federal states – see in “German secondary school“
Gymnasium in Germany. First year
4th grade. Gymnasium or Realschule?
What is PISA shock and why is it the norm and not the exception
German Gymnasium school. Profile choice, marks and inclusion
German Gymnasium. Grade 7
Special schools and inclusion for kids with speech delay in Germany
Vocational training in Germany – looking for Ausbildung

Return to G9 (nine years of gymnasium)

The 8-year gymnasiums were supposed to make education in Germany more in line with other countries. It was assumed that this way the kids would not finish their education with grey beards.

This was done not so long ago – double Abitur (two graduation years at once under 8- and 9-year- systems) happened just a little more than 10 years ago. This time there will be no double Abitur, but, on the contrary, a year without Abitur, which should be paid close attention to by all interested persons from other federal lands and those who can extend the time it takes to get their certificate in one way or another (by repeating a year or transferring to Berufsgymnasium).

They start from the coming autumn, but from the 6th grade. Accordingly, in 2032, when these children should have taken the Abitur, there will be a whole federal land less applicants. And not just some small land, but quite the third in terms of population. Let’s take note and draw conclusions.

Since 9 years of school were turned into 8 years, by cramming knowledge more tightly, instead of thinking, no one with normal brains (parents and experts) was satisfied with the result. Politicians, however, were doing just fine. But politicians can also be forced by democratic methods. In Germany – by collecting a sufficient number of signatures. By the way, it was not so easy via the Internet: you had to go to the collection point in person. As a result, the car was turned back.

Will we like what they came up with? Let’s take a first look.

My personal complaint was that the topics from college are pushed down to grades 6-7, and the base is washed away – it is either not studied at all (and not in elementary school either), or it is run through at the speed of sound and never repeated. This entire colossus on clay feet rests only on the principle of “learned and forgotten”.
The treatment would be
– a real deepening of the profile after the 8th grade with distribution by levels in every subject
– a real reduction in the number of subjects in senior classes, as in other countries
– an increase in the number of teaching hours while simultaneously not increasing the volume of material (more time for learning and repetition)

So what do we get?

1. Introduced mandatory computer science in all classes.

2. They strengthened German, mathematics, the first foreign language in the 5th grade, but reduced the hours in the higher grades (4 hours in the 6th and 7th grades and 3 hours thereafter). Ok, guys. I had no complaints about English. The rest?
5 hours in the 5th grade is great, but we had them already as pool hours (additional hours, distributed by schools). Many attended additional supporting classes, which were in all gymnasiums. That is, standard practice was made mandatory. This is not enough with such a crammed program in grades 5-7. Our problem is that they haven’t mastered fractions and brackets, but they do go through probability and the binary system in detail (with calculations). In German, they have never gone through the textbook completely, and they obviously will not learn free writing, just as they have not learned to do so. Therefore, if you continue to insist on such a program, then adding one single hour, which was already unofficial, will not change anything.

3. The IMP profile was removed, which is understandable, because it was a fantasy course, combining cryptology, astronomy, for some reason electricity in detail and a couple of simple IT programs.

4. You can compare the number of hours in the table.

As always, foreign languages are great, they always look after their interests.
And, of course, the most important subject, religion, does not forget itself.
Geography has also additional hour – let’s look, maybe they will study not only climate.

Physics and chemistry are clearly the winners, but I would first rewrite these literary masterpieces that they call textbooks so that they would begin to correspond to educational rather than literary goals. For now, the chemistry teacher has to create an alternative textbook from printouts.

But biology seemed to have been smeared, with the third hour removed from grades 5-6, when they were supposed to do experiments and study safety precautions.

Poolstunden are hours that the gymnasiums distributed themselves. In the old system, there were 4 free hours and 9.7 hours for supporting those who were lagging behind. Now these support hours are gone. Of the 8 available, three have already been distributed: one for languages ​​(first or second), one for mentoring, whatever that means, and one for art or music.

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Conclusion

So far, the real improvement is questionable. Most likely, the same density of educational material per hour, just fewer lessons per week. 28 hours per week is the workload of an elementary school. And we also need to look at the new programs. Maybe they will add even more on top. After all, they study “longer”. And then there will be more food per unit of time.

The declared strengthening of mathematics and German is only on paper. Rather, they have lost, since previously there were hours to support those who were lagging behind, which were spent specifically on these subjects.

Therefore, if you want to send your child to a gymnasium because it has 9 years now, and you did not want to before because of G8, then I would recommend thinking again. The problem with an eight-year school was not the number of hours per week, but that any brain must mature for information, lay it down and repeat it several times to learn it. A gymnasium assumes that you heard it once, understood everything and remembered it forever. Or you study additionally at home, with a tutor, dad/mom/aunt. This point has not gone away yet.

Restriction of free choice of type of secondary school

When we moved to Germany, there was a mandatory recommendation in Baden-Württemberg. It was impossible to change this sentence, parents suffered and complained. Critics quite rightly pointed out that it is not always possible to determine potential in the fourth grade. In addition, there is always the possibility of personal conflicts with the teacher.

Therefore, the mandatory recommendation was cancelled. However, an interview with parents remained mandatory.

Now this freedom has been restricted again.
Firstly, people come to the gymnasium even with a recommendation to the Hauptschule. And this puts pressure on the gymnasiums.
Secondly, with the transition to G9, there is expected to be an influx of those who previously preferred to protect their child from overwork. They will think that it is easier in a 9-year gymnasium. In some strange expert assessments, I even saw a forecast of 60 percent of children studying in gymnasiums (now about 45 percent). These experts simply added to the current number of children in gymnasiums those who went to other schools, having a gymnasium recommendation, without studying the question of why these people chose other types of schools. I do not believe in 60 percent. But the number of children will increase to some extent.

To be honest, I don’t really understand why gymnasiums take everyone. For example, our gymnasium has made five 5. classes (it used to be four), although there is not enough space – did anyone force them? In large cities, it is common for a gymnasium to refuse to take a child. It would be quite possible to weed out those with bad grades.

But apparently, the gymnasiums are not able to limit their appetites. They have to limit them by other methods.

From this year, in order to enter the gymnasium, a child must meet two of three criteria:
– have parents willing to send him to a gymnasium,
– and get a recommendation from the school, which is based on the grades for the semester (no worse than 3 for German and mathematics separately and on average no worse than 2.5 for these two subjects together)
– and/or write the Kompass 4 test for the required grade

If there is no recommendation or good test, but the parents’ will is still strong, there is one more chance – the Potenzialtest at the gymnasium.

The Kompass 4 test has been mandatory since this year, and the first experience has sent parents into a panic.

The results are reminiscent of a train crash. Only 6 percent of children passed the math exam at the gymnasium level and only 27 percent of children passed the German exam. Let me remind you that about 45-50 percent of children go to gymnasium.

Most of them didn’t even pass math at the real level. Which perfectly demonstrates how big the gap is between those who sit in the ministry and come up with all these programs, and those who actually teach children.

You can view the tasks here.

The math tasks are solvable, many of them are found in the textbook and also in the VERA test. However:
– only 45 minutes
– while there are 15 tasks (8 sheets)
– the tasks include all the topics in mathematics. Even in VERA only two topics are chosen each year.

German tasks can also be solved separately. But:
– again 8 pages in 45 minutes
– in German, I am especially interested in the evaluation criteria. There are moments when you have to complete a rather large task, but you only get 1 or 2 points for it. That is, a child can write 80 percent correctly, but make a mistake in the last word, and then what, zero for an almost completely completed task – something we especially love in German schools?

Potenzialtest is written in mid-February centrally. It is necessary to register for it shortly before it is held. Therefore, if you have doubts, but want to go to the gymnasium, make sure that your interview with the class teacher takes place before registering for this test.

The test is sent by the ministry to the gymnasiums, checked by the gymnasium teachers. I have not found any samples yet, so it is difficult to assess its adequacy. The gymnasium teachers consider it appropriate. I think that an amendment should be made: appropriate for the training in the gymnasium with its memory and speed requirements. This does not necessarily demonstrate the level of intelligence of the child.

In addition to the two parts devoted to German and mathematics, each 20 minutes long, there is a third 20-minute part on logical thinking, less related to the level of German and more to intelligence. However, there are no statistics and samples yet.

I would like to remind everyone once again:
you can go to Gemeinschaftsschule and have the gymnasium level there
you can study in real school, pass exams well and go to Berufsgymnasium
you can study in real school, go to vocational school and take exams there in stages at any level, including admissions to univercity or Hochschule
All these options provide access to the high education.