The summer holidays are coming to an end for around 1.5 million students and a good 140,000 teachers - they have to go back to the classroom on Monday. What is important at the start of the new school year? An overview of the biggest innovations and ongoing construction sites.
Entitlement to full-day care applies
The biggest change compared to the previous year affects, according to estimates, around 110,000 first graders at primary schools in the country. From this year onwards, they – and their parents – have a legal right to all-day care. The relevant law requires at least eight hours. The entitlement also applies during holidays, with the exception of 20 working days on which the care may be closed. If the children do not go to all-day school, the municipalities are responsible for afternoon care. It is not yet clear how high supply and demand are - there are no figures available yet.
However, the education union GEW sees a need for improvement in the standards for care. There was a lack of binding quality standards, complained state boss Monika Stein.
Junior classes start
In the last legislative period, the Green-Black coalition launched a multi-million dollar expansion of language support. Another element of the package for the new school year is now starting with the junior classes. According to the Ministry of Culture, the junior classes are a compulsory school year before primary school for children who do not speak German sufficiently or have other developmental deficits. Politicians hope that the model will result in fewer children starting primary school who are actually not ready for it.
According to the ministry, around 4,000 children are starting the new school year in around 280 such classes. The number is expected to increase to 832 nationwide by the 2028/2029 school year, so that the offer is available across the board. Then attending the junior class also becomes mandatory. Until then, parents decide whether to follow the recommendation that their child should attend a junior class.
Heat-free rules are being revised
During the heat wave in the summer, students and teachers had to sweat heavily in the classrooms. Education Minister Andreas Jung (CDU) announced at the end of June that he wanted to revise the rules for heat-free conditions in schools in the country. According to his idea, the rules should also become more binding. Schools should not only be able to give heat-free access above a certain temperature, but they should also do so. In addition, the crucial temperature should no longer be measured in the schoolyard, but in the classroom.
The aim is to create more clarity and commitment across the country by next summer, said a ministry spokesman. In the fall, students, parents, training companies and municipalities should be involved in the ministry's considerations, it said.
Teacher supply
Missing teachers will continue to be an issue this year. A few days before the start of the new school year in Baden-Württemberg, according to the Ministry of Culture, hundreds of teaching positions are still unfilled. There are still 426 positions open across all types of schools, said Education Minister Andreas Jung (CDU) in Stuttgart. We are making good progress with the recruitment, but there is still a strained supply, says Jung. There are problems both in individual regions and in the area of special education. However, the ministry is confident that the remaining open positions will be filled by the end of the recruitment phase in October.
Compared to last year, however, the gaps at the schools are significantly smaller at the start. In 2025, according to the Ministry of Culture, 1,159 positions were still vacant shortly before school started. The reason for this was that shortly before the summer holidays it became known that 1,440 teaching positions had probably remained unfilled for years due to a software error. They were then all advertised at once for the new school year.
Declining student performance
Student performance has also been an ongoing issue for years. Studies regularly show a further decline in skills - just a few days ago the Pisa study, in which German students performed worse than ever. How this trend can be reversed will likely remain an important question in the new school year.
Jung is particularly concerned about the decline in educational equality. “The question arises as to whether we can start recording language and developmental levels even earlier and provide more child-friendly support than the current average age of 4.3 years,” said Jung a few days ago. Decisive steps would be taken in the first few years.
GEW boss Stein, on the other hand, said that recording the language level earlier alone would not help. “If I identify needs through any kind of survey, then I have to provide the right measures so that whatever shortage or need for support has been noticed can also be addressed.”
The philologists' association, which represents high school teachers in the country, warned against narrowing the debate to declining basic skills. These were shown well in the test. Critical thinking or musical education, for example, cannot be represented well, said board member Cord Santelmann. These things, which are also important at high schools, are ignored in the surveys.
