Thuringia’s Education Minister Proposes School Regulation Reforms to Prioritize Media Education and Computer Science

Erfurt (dpa/th) – New subject, more options, fewer performance checks: Thuringia’s Education Minister Helmut Holter (left) wants to reform school regulations. With the introduction of the subject “media education and computer science” at secondary schools, the timetable changes fundamentally. This is provided for in a draft for new school regulations that Holter presented in Erfurt on Wednesday. Accordingly, the subject should be compulsory in all general schools from class five.

To this end, the pupils should have more options in certain sections of their school career and in some cases fewer subjects overall. According to Holter, they should be relieved because they then have to provide proof of performance in fewer subjects. According to previous plans, the new ordinance should come into force in the 2024/25 school year.

In the ninth grade, students should make their first decisions about the subjects in which they want to deepen their knowledge. In the natural sciences and social sciences as well as in the music and arts area, they should each choose two out of three subjects. In the social sciences area, for example, they can choose from the subjects geography, social studies and economics/law.

Holter said there were 18 subjects in the tenth grade, with the new school subject there would even be 19. The changes in the school regulations are intended to reduce the number of subjects to 15 – but without reducing the number of hours in the total school career. For the students, this would mean that they would have to prepare for fewer assessments because they have fewer subjects. High school students then have to decide again in the tenth grade whether to deepen their subjects.

The CDU education politician Christian Tischner warned against using the planned change in school regulations to fight the shortage of teachers. “I see a deterioration in quality and an instrument to cover up the increasing shortage of teachers at the expense of professionalism,” he said. Holter had emphasized that the planned changes had nothing to do with the teacher shortage in Thuringia’s schools.

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