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Education
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Bavarian kids 'smartest in Germany'

Published: 5 Oct 12 09:18 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/education/20121005-45373.html

Bavarians do it better, again. A new study presented on Friday has shown that primary schools in the southern German state are the best in the country. But schools in the city states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg are struggling.

The southern German states dominated all three disciplines tested (reading, listening and mathematics), followed by a broad equality among most of the other states - except the three city states.

The survey, being presented in Berlin on Friday by the assembly of Germany's state education ministers (KMK), tested more than 30,000 fourth graders (9-10 year-olds) at over 1,300 schools over the past year. It is the first purely domestic German primary school comparison ever carried out.

Unlike the international school performance studies like PISA and IGLU, the new test was developed according to purely national education standards agreed by the various states. These are meant to determine what each pupil is meant to be able to do at the end of each year.

The results were calculated through a points system in all three disciplines. In reading, Bavaria led the way with 515 points, followed closed by the eastern German states of Saxony (515), Saxony-Anhalt (511), and Thuringia (510). In contrast, Hamburg (478), Berlin (467) and Bremen (463) all scored well below the national average of 500.

In maths, Bavaria also led the way, with 519 points, followed closely by Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg.

The study also confirmed earlier reports that while boys are generally better at maths earlier in life, girls score higher in reading and writing. The results found that girls were an average of 32 points ahead of boys in those departments - roughly equivalent of half a year's learning.

The Local/DPA/bk

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

10:10 October 5, 2012 by The-ex-pat
Yawn, another Bavarian we are better than everyone else study....................
13:15 October 5, 2012 by BobbyBaxter
No surprises here.

You don't need a survey to prove this. Simply speak to a Bavarian and then a Berliner and the difference in education, social etiquette etc is immediately noticeable.

Without the economic power house of the South, Germany would be no better off than countries like Greece.....
16:18 October 5, 2012 by ChrisRea
Interesting that a 10% difference is considered too big. Especially considering that there is no unitary age for schooling (for example, in Berlin they go to school when they are 6 years old, in Bayern at 7). Heck, even the numbers of children tested varies by some 10% as reported by different newspapers (Süddeutsche and TAZ say 30,000, Frankfurter Allgemeine 28,000 and Berliner Zeitung 27,000).
20:24 October 5, 2012 by Englishted
Do you trust the findings?

In the PISA studies it has a German class size that is nowhere near the real picture .

My child is now in the second year of "big school " and has never been in a class below 30 and this is in a small town .
04:13 October 6, 2012 by Eric1
Barvarians are more traditional, and have more discipline in the home. More personal responsibility that other parts of Germany. Just an observation.
15:19 October 7, 2012 by raandy
The demographics between these areas, would have some an effect on this testing.
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