More and more elementary school students fail to meet minimum standards in reading, writing and arithmetic: This nationwide trend from a new study is already well known. Now comes the eagerly awaited ranking of countries.

Stuttgart/Berlin (dpa/lsw) – Where does the former model student in Baden-Württemberg stand in the new performance test in elementary school? This Monday (9 a.m.) the country results of the study by the Institute for Quality Development in Education (IQB) will be presented.

The national trend had already become known in the summer: According to this, the fourth graders fell behind again in reading, writing and math compared to the last studies.

Four years ago, the results in the Southwest caused a real shock. At that time, the former educational model country had slipped into the middle of the list of countries. There was a crash when reading, listening and also in math.

The Minister of Education at the time, Susanne Eisenmann (CDU), reacted, among other things, by founding two scientific institutes that were to take a close look at the education system in the state. In addition, the basic skills of elementary school students in German and math should be significantly strengthened.

Did it help? Eisenmann’s successor, the Green Minister of Education Theresa Schopper, recently said – without mentioning the study directly: It would be alarming if 20 percent of the children no longer had optimal reading performance.

The IQB study was based on tests at almost 1,500 schools throughout Germany with around 27,000 fourth graders between April and August 2021. In Baden-Württemberg, around 90 schools and 1,600 children from the then fourth grade took part.