German schools don't do enough to support migrant children, says OECD director

The education director of the OECD has said that Germany doesn’t do enough to support children who have a migration background through their school years. He pointed to insufficient early childhood education, poorly-allocated resources, and intersections with other social and economic problems as important factors. 

German school system poorly equipped to deal with challenges posed by migration

In an interview with the Stuttgarter Zeitung, Andreas Schleicher, the education director of the OECD and the head of the PISA study on education systems, said that the German school system was poorly equipped to deal with the challenges posed by migration. 

“It’s a huge problem when an education system doesn’t adequately and successfully care for children with a migrant background… Unfortunately, this is far too often the case in Germany,” he said. 

He explained that, in his opinion, the problems begin way before the children start school. “Well-equipped daycare centres with a clear educational mission are the best way to ensure that all girls and boys enrolled in school have sufficient language skills,” he said. “This includes mandatory language tests and early diagnostics.” He added that “if too many children in a class lack the necessary language skills, it becomes difficult for the teachers.”

Migration, language deficits and economic circumstances all play a role

While early childhood education is an important factor, Schleicher emphasised that it is not the only one. He said that Germany needed to focus on reallocating funds in the education system, to put more resources into the schools in more socially disadvantaged areas, which face greater challenges.

He added that the “combination” of migrant backgrounds, language barriers and economic disadvantages makes things even trickier. Schleicher also rejected the idea that migration itself was to blame for Germany’s poor scores in international education comparisons like the PISA study, pointing out that countries with a comparable migration rate like the US, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland all fare much better. 

Will Germany implement a migration quota for schools?

German Education Minister Karen Prien recently said that she was open to the idea of a “migration quota” in schools, where the proportion of children with a migration background in each class would be capped. 

The idea was rejected by the government’s commissioner for integration and the teachers’ association, but Schleicher agreed that “more needs to be done to better distribute children with migrant backgrounds and language deficits across schools”. He pointed to the example of the Flemish parts of Belgium, where parents’ personal data is used in the school application system to ensure a good social mix across all schools.