Equality of Educational Opportunity: A Challenge for the German Education System
Christina Anger / Axel Plünnecke IW-Analyse No. 140 21. January 2021 Equality of Educational Opportunity: A Challenge for the German Education System
Germany has been making good progress towards achieving equality of opportunity in its education system. Latterly, however, it has become clear that the correlation between socio-economic background and educational success is again becoming more pronounced, a phenomenon which can be partly attributed to the high level of immigration in recent years.
Christina Anger / Axel Plünnecke German Economic Institute (IW)
Germany has been making good progress towards achieving equality of opportunity in its education system. Latterly, however, it has become clear that the correlation between socio-economic background and educational success is again becoming more pronounced, a phenomenon which can be partly attributed to the high level of immigration in recent years.
Children’s chances of educational success are to a large extent determined by their parents. In many countries, some parents, and particularly those with a university degree, have recently increased their material and immaterial investments in the start of their children’s educational career. Early childhood support and school education are the means best suited to levelling the playing field again. However, if children’s educational opportunities are to be significantly enhanced, further qualitative and quantitative improvements need to be made in both areas. A new challenge is having an additional adverse impact on equality of opportunity in education: the corona crisis. Where face-to-face lessons in schools and support for children in day-care facilities are no longer possible or are restricted, the different ways in which parents can support their children take on even greater significance. This, in turn, could again exacerbate the inequality of educational opportunity that many children face.
With the sharp reduction in classroom teaching in the context of the Corona pandemic, students' own initiative in practising the school material has become much more important for their competence development.
Barbara Engels / Ruth Maria Schüler IW-Trends No. 2 17. June 2020
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Young people spend a lot of time online, a fact which influences how they learn and follow political and economic developments. This empirical study based on a survey conducted as part of the JUNIOR project examines how young people in Germany use the Internet ...
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German Economic Institute (IW) 
