Tricia Smiley

GCU 114
11/8/16
Education in Germany
The UN has created a Global education First Initiative. This includes three
priorities that are important in the global initiative on education. These include; put every
child in school, improve the quality of learning and foster global citizenship. It was
originally formed back in 2012 and with this five-year plan; they had hoped to capitalize
on it by 2015. This initiative included a variety of countries in order to help increase the
importance of education worldwide.
After doing some research, I found a graph showing the mean scores of student
performance globally. It included different countries such as Finland, Brazil, Germany
and the United States. The number of scores from Germany was much too low and this
had me thinking. Why were these scores so low and what and we do to fix them? Well,
after some research I learned that a lot of the German schools were inadequate and they
provided an unequal education performance for students. It was clear that the schools
were not providing the correct atmosphere for learning based on the failing test results
and later looked into what occurred around 2012 when the Global Education initiative
was put into place. By 2012, German students had pulled above the OECD average,
their actual mean scores compared to 2000, and trounced the U.S., which continued to see
scores slipeven as states instituted more mandated tests under No Child Left Behind
and, later, newer assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards(Berwick,
2015). It looks like the education initiative is doing its job in this area for Germany. By

improving the quality of learning for students in Germany, it has increased their
proficiency scores and lead to the creation of PISA (a standardized test).
Another topic in the education initiative is to put every child in school. After
researching this topic on the data world bank website, I found that from the years 19941998 Germany increased the enrollment ratio by almost 6%. Shortly after from the years
1999-2003 it took a steep drop leaving the enrollment ratio at a low rate for Germany.
The UN created this initiative back in 2012 in hopes that it would see a significant change
by the year of 2015. This chart only goes to the year of 2014 but it shows a slight increase
from 2012 at 103.09% and then in 2014 Germany is at 103.335%. It is gradually going up
and this is great for the country. Education is one of the most important tools a child can
have and it is important for them to continue to increase their enrollment ratio.
The last priority is fostering global citizenship. This has been a common issue for
Germany until lately when they are trying to prove through collecting data that they are
welcoming outsiders-newcomers, second language speakers, ethnic minorities- into its
education system(Berwick, 2015). Refugees are now streaming into Germany and this
has allows hundreds of thousands of students to enter into the upcoming school year in
Germany. This will definitely help out with the segregation in the school systems in
Germany, which has been a huge problem particularly in certain cities.
Overall, Germany has made a vast array of improvements throughout the past few
years within their education system. They have shown an increase in student enrollment
between the years of 2012-2015. They also have created standardized tests such as PISA
to track how well their education system is doing and how successful its students are.
Lastly, Germany has included a variety of people including refugees into their education

system in order to try and foster global citizenship. These three priorities have been met
and will continue to rise in the upcoming years for Germany.

References

Berwick,C.(n.d.).TheGreatGermanSchoolTurnaround.RetrievedNovember05,
2016,fromhttp://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/greatgermanscool
turnaround/413806/

Priorities|UnitedNationsEducational,ScientificandCulturalOrganization.(n.d.).
RetrievedNovember05,2016,fromhttp://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/priorities/