Remedy for weak students
Kretschmann holds parents responsible
January 8, 2024, 7:31 a.m
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When performance at school isn’t up to par, some parents reflexively blame their children’s teachers. State leader Kretschmann sees it differently: He demands mutual respect and appeals to fathers and mothers to do their part.
In order to get the performance problems among primary school students under control, Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann sees parents as well as the state as having a duty. “It takes a general will to educate – across the entire educational biography, by the way,” said the Green politician in Stuttgart. This thirst for knowledge must be encouraged from within the parents’ homes.
In his view, the educational partnership between parents and teachers needs to be renewed. “We sometimes have over-care – what is called helicopter parents. And there is also a proportion of parents who do not take enough responsibility for raising their children.”
Kretschmann believes that mutual respect between parents and teachers is important. A good example of this is the primary school recommendation. “I don’t know why some parents don’t comply.” That is the recommendation of experts. Parents should respect the specialists and not ignore their vote, says Kretschmann.
Educational studies have shown in recent years that performance in many core subjects is declining. In 2022, this was shown by the poor test results among fourth graders in math and German: almost one in five children did not meet the minimum standards in the two subjects. The proportion of strong students who meet or exceed the standard standard in German and mathematics fell.