Ever more elementary school pupils in Germany cannot perform the most basic tasks such as holding a pen correctly or even using the lavatory by themselves, according to a leading teachers’ union.
More than 1,100 teachers have signed an open letter that the Education and Science Workers’ Union (GEW) has handed over to the State Education Ministry of Hesse, as tabloid Bild reported on November 30.
“The needs of children have increased enormously,” the union representatives wrote in the letter. “Children increasingly lack the skills to successfully follow school lessons.”
Those included poor concentration, patience, following rules and basic lavatory hygiene. Similarly, children in German elementary schools exhibit a lack of frustration tolerance, are unable to lose or fight fairly and make up afterwards, it said.
The GEW wrotes: “Many children lack an upbringing which enables them to behave correctly in a group our classroom setting and to learn.”
Even physical skills are reportedly on decline as an increasing number of pupils are unable to hold a pen correctly, sit upright or tie their own shoelaces.
GEW chairwoman Heike Ackermann said many children were not used to using toilet paper or getting dressed by themselves again after using the lavatory.
She added that the pupils were not to blame. “We as a society are responsible that it has come so far … The pupils are being abandoned by politicians and so are we teachers.”
To ease the strain on teachers, the union is demanding smaller classes of 20 children maximum as well as more posts for teachers, psychologists and therapists.
Ackermann said she wants to hold parents accountable as well. She decried what she said was the fact that a rising number of parents spend more time with their mobile phones than with their children.
While the teachers’ union was careful to avoid any references to Germany’s migration crisis in the open letter, others took a more candid view.
Tichys Einblick magazine reported today that columnist and former middle school teacher Josef Kraus wrote in response to the GEW letter: “There are parents who do not want to raise their children out of convenience or due to difficult circumstances.
“They entrust the upbringing of their children to day care centres and schools. Or they simply do not care,” he wrote.
“This is especially true for many parents with a migrant background who do not consider it important for their children to acquire a solid command of the German language.”
