Academic children have three times the chance of a bachelor’s degree

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Berlin In the result paper of the traffic light sounding, the parties promise all children equal opportunities for education. This is part of the “qualified skilled workers strategy”, which is intended to strengthen the economy. That would be a big upheaval, because up until now, the children of academics have had significantly better chances of starting a degree. This is shown by a study by the Stifterverband with the management consultancy McKinsey entitled “From working-class child to doctor – the hurdles on the educational path of first-year students”, which is available to the Handelsblatt.

The study shows that the social background in Germany is decisive for educational success. Out of 100 working-class children who attend elementary school, only 27 later sit in a lecture hall. On the other hand, out of 100 academic children, 79 later enroll at a university. In other words: Academic children have three times the chance of a bachelor’s degree as non-academic children.

“Germany is still giving away too much educational potential,” says McKinsey partner Julia Klier, summarizing the findings. The Pisa studies had also repeatedly shown that the dependency between school success and parental home is far greater in Germany than in almost all other countries and that there is a persistent “high injustice” in the education system. Meanwhile there is also “no more dynamism in education”, said the acting Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek (CDU) at the presentation of the latest Pisa study.

“The new federal government must now do everything in its power to further massively expand equal opportunities in education. Germany needs every single talent, ”warns Volker Meyer-Guckel, Vice Secretary General of the Stifterverband der Wirtschaft for Science.

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According to their exploratory paper, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to support above all those children whose parents cannot. Together with the federal states and municipalities, they want to ensure that “every child has the same chance of development and fulfillment,” says the results paper of the explorations.

Corona could destroy the progress made so far

After all: since the previous study in 2018/19, the values ​​of the children of students and non-students have aligned a little. But the difference is still enormous: 71 percent of primary school students come from non-academic households. But only 46 percent of them later switch to a school that enables university access. There are almost twice as many among the academic children.

And of those who have made it to a school that leads to the Abitur, only 59 percent of the students without studied parents later switch to a university – for those from academic households, the figure is 95 percent. However, once non-academic children have made the leap to university or technical college, “in many cases they are as successful as academic children,” the authors write.

School lesson with mask

Working-class children have significantly worse opportunities to study.

(Photo: dpa)

And Corona could destroy even the small advances, because “especially children from non-academic households had fewer digital opportunities to learn”. Although there are still no comprehensive tests on the learning loss, surveys show that at least in the first pandemic year of 2020, children from non-academic households in homeschooling were far more poorly reached – also because they were less well equipped with laptops. In addition, they benefited less from special measures such as holiday courses or tutoring.

Many non-academic children also shy away from entering the academic world for financial reasons – because their parents are less able to support them or because the courage to invest in the future is less due to a lack of role models. “Only 15 percent of young people from working-class families can completely rely on their parents to finance their studies,” says Meyer-Guckel, and calls for “a comprehensive reform of student loans”. The traffic light partners have so far only vaguely promised a reform that will make the student loan scheme “more independent of parents”.

Stifterverband calls for more housing subsidies for student loans

The Stifterverband makes specific suggestions: A higher and, above all, location-dependent housing subsidy is necessary to offset the high rental costs in many cities. In addition, funding must be possible beyond the standard period of study and current income statements must be taken into account more easily. And finally, the application must finally be standardized and digitized nationwide.

Despite the steadily increasing number of students, the number of Bafög recipients has steadily declined since 2012, most recently by six percent in 2020 alone. Even the latest student loan reform of 2019 could not change that. Of a total of almost three million students, only 465,500 recently received student loans. The average monthly funding amount is 574 euros.

More: The Greens and the FDP have presented sophisticated plans for better education in their election manifestos – the SPD kept a low profile

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