Historically poor PISA results: employers and unions demand education reforms

Never before have the German PISA results been worse. It's not just the education minister who is worried. Business representatives are calling for more and more targeted spending for the youngest.

In view of historically poor results in the Pisa student test, employers and unions are pushing for better education in Germany. The Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) are committed to this goal at their joint educational conference. An “impulse paper” from the social partners states that public spending on education should be increased in a targeted and effective manner. The assurance and further development of school quality must be consistently based on ensuring that all children acquire the basic skills they need for their personal development, their further educational path and their professional life.

This included professional, social, democratic and digital skills in equal measure. “Special attention must be paid to children and young people with unfavorable starting conditions, whose needs should be identified at an early stage and specifically supported,” says the impulse paper.

The 'roadmap' agreed by the federal and state governments for better educational quality and more equal opportunities must be further specified, backed up with binding milestones and implemented decisively: "Achieving the agreed goals requires educational management that recognizes the need for action at an early stage, makes progress transparent and enables effective resource management." The further expansion of child day care and ensuring quality should be priority tasks for the federal, state and local governments.

As the OECD group of industrialized countries recently announced for its international comparative study Pisa, the average results of students in Germany in mathematics and reading skills in 2025 were even lower than in 2022. Germany has been taking part in the test since 2000, and the results have never been worse. From the perspective of Education Minister Karin Prien, the finding is worrying. It is also extremely worrying that the social gap is continuing to widen. From the perspective of the BDA and DGB, it is important to reduce existing barriers to access and to provide all families with “low-threshold access to high-quality early education offerings”.