"The Wrong Signal"

In various German states, it is now possible to repeat the school year voluntarily. This is intended to give students who have suffered significant learning delays as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic the opportunity to catch up. The DGBV board, which includes Prof. Dr. Kai Maaz of the DIPF, criticize this approach in a guest post on the blog of specialist journalist Jan-Martin Wiarda as "the wrong signal." Among other things, they argue that the responsibility for dealing with the pandemic should not be transferred from the schools to the parents - because they would then have to decide whether to repeat their children's classes - and that one should not ignore the psycho-emotional stresses that such a step would bring for the children and young people.

Instead, the DGBV board advocates doing without class repetitions "in order to give the students at least one more school year to make up for their learning deficits within the class. According to the experts, this would also require differentiated diagnostic instruments and support concepts, comprehensive further training for teachers and recognition of the psycho-emotional consequences of the pandemic.

The entire guest article of the DGBV in the blog of Jan-Martin Wiarda