Education crisis: New negative record – 65,000 young people leave school every year without a qualification

Berlin. The number of young people leaving school without a qualification has again risen significantly.

According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, there were almost 65,000 in the 2024/2025 school year - after 62,000 in the previous year and 56,000 in the year before that. The BSW queried the numbers and they are also accessible in the statistics authority's databases.

For comparison: Ten years ago, in the 2014/2015 school year, 47,400 graduates were counted without a qualification. The number rose to around 53,000 by 2018/2019 and temporarily fell during Corona, which could also be related to exams being made easier during this time. After that, the numbers steadily increased.

Accordingly, not only has the absolute number of dropouts and graduates without a degree increased, but also their share of the total number of graduates. In the 2013/2014 school year there were around 5.5 percent who did not leave school with at least a secondary school leaving certificate, in 2018/2019 around 6.6 percent and in 2024/2025 around 8.4 percent. This is the highest rate in the past 20 years. At the turn of the millennium it was even higher.

The land of poets and thinkers should not increasingly become a land of school dropouts and the uneducated, said BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht. “If 65,000 students leave school without a qualification, then that is a state-organized shortage of skilled workers!” The education system is of national importance and should not fail due to small-state federalism. In Germany, schools and education are the responsibility of the federal states.