The school year in Bavaria starts with a record number of students and new rules

After six weeks of summer vacation, the new school year in the Free State starts on Tuesday. The number of students is increasing again: 1.77 million girls and boys will attend classes. That is around 20,000 more than in the last school year. Culture Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) spoke of the highest level in 15 years.

Around 132,000 children are likely to look forward to Tuesday with special feelings: They will start their school career as first graders. This is also an increase of almost 2,500 compared to the previous school year.

Teaching provision “very tense”

The mostly six-year-olds come into a tense system in which there are too few teachers in many places. Stolz sees the teaching provision in the upcoming school year as “stable”, but admits that the situation is “very tense”. Next year there will be new hires again following the job moratorium currently in place for savings reasons.

There are several innovations in the new school year. There are changes in the examination culture that, in addition to the “tried and tested” written and oral tasks, also enable more innovative formats such as presentations, projects, debates and practical tasks. The “exes” - unannounced queries - that have been criticized for years are still allowed. In some places, students will be required to provide fewer proofs of achievement in the future.

In the future, private cell phone use will only be allowed from eighth grade onwards

In the middle schools, the timetable can also be designed more flexibly in the future - for both entire classes and individual students, up to two hours per week for the subjects German, mathematics and English should be reorganized as required in grades five to seven. There should also be more physical education classes at all types of schools.

A topic that has concerned parents and children alike for years is cell phone use. This school year there is a new regulation that private use is prohibited for all children and young people up to and including the seventh grade. Parents should also be made more aware of the risks at information events in the future.