Pupils no longer necessarily have grades, but may be assessed differently, such as with written assessments. The state of Hesse initially wants to grant this possibility to up to 30 schools. This was announced by a speaker of the Hessian Minister of Culture Alexander Lorz (CDU) and confirmed a report by the FAZ.
It is an offer that schools might or might not accept. Students, parents and teachers should decide together if they want to forego grades. "This is not a path that the authority orders," the spokesman said. The offer is especially suitable for comprehensive schools. Ultimately, however, it is open to all types of schools.
If a school decides to abolish censorship, it must present an alternative concept. The school conference must agree. However: The renouncement is only possible if there is no change to a secondary school or a school graduation. Then students need credentials with conventional grades. "There must be comparability," the spokesman said.
more on the subject
The offer is therefore only valid for students up to grade eight - and only for a small part of the Hessian schools. In the next five years, the option may use a maximum of 30 schools per year, ie no more than 150 in total. There are 1800 schools in Hesse.
"Finally enable a departure"
Basis for the renunciation of notes is the coalition agreement of the black-green state government. Schools should be given the opportunity to "pedagogically new ways to achieve educational goals," it says, including in the "design of evidence".
"That's the crucial, new passage," said the authorities spokesman. So far, however, there is still relatively little concrete content behind it. In practice, it could start with the renunciation at the earliest from the coming school year.
The demand comes from the Greens. They wanted schools "finally make a departure," said its group chairman in the Hessian state parliament, Mathias Wagner, the "FAZ". "The educational goals can be better achieved with a different pedagogy."
Topic with "explosive force"
The Hessian CDU had suffered in the state election in October 2018 strong voter losses. In the coalition negotiations with the Greens, they had to compromise accordingly - and agreed to the new rules on grading. In the Union, however, there are great reservations, as reported by the FAZ. A party member speaks of a topic with "explosive force".
Parents, teachers, experts and education politicians have been arguing over the question of whether students should receive grades or not. Abolish scores at least selectively, is not new. There are already many elementary schools in Germany and also some comprehensive schools that at least partly do without censorship. The rules vary from state to state.
Example Schleswig-Holstein
In Schleswig-Holstein, for example, a coalition of the SPD, Greens and SSW had softened the rules on grading a few years ago. At elementary schools there were no grades anyway in grades one and two, in grades three and four they were also regularly abolished. Certificates with digits only existed when a school explicitly specified this for themselves.
The subsequent government of CDU, Greens and FDP changed the rules but again. Now it's the other way around: Schools have to give grades from grade three - unless the school decides to do without it.
At the schools in Schleswig-Holstein the following applies: For grades five to seven, the school conference may stipulate that grades be replaced by formulated assessments. However, these decisions are only effective if the majority of elected teachers agree, said a spokeswoman for the school board.