Those relocating to Germany with school-age children will find a wide choice of opportunities in an education system that has recently been the subject of significant reform.
G
ermany’s education system has undergone fundamental reform in the past decade, and now offers excellent opportunities for relocating families willing to embrace the German way of life.
For those on shorter assignments and with language restrictions, however, there are plenty of international-school options to suit different budgets and that teach the learning structures of a family’s home country. As you would expect, Germany offers a high standard of state-funded education. This was not always the case.
The country took a long, hard look at its federal education system following a damning report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2000. What has since become known as the ‘PISA shock’ (after the OECD’s Programme for International Assessment) found that Germany had the most unequal education performance of all the countries assessed, and spurred the German government into action. It has since simplified its once very complex, streamed secondary education and improved early-years provision.
