Saxony's primary school pupils receive additional German and subject lessons

Saxony's primary school pupils will receive additional German and subject lessons from the coming school year in order to strengthen their reading and writing skills. The focus will be on learning the German language in particular, announced Minister of Education Christian Piwarz (CDU) in Dresden on Tuesday. In the coming school year, there will be an additional hour of subject lessons per week in level one and German lessons in level two. From the 2025/2026 school year, an additional hour per week will be added for levels three and four. "I really hope to see a qualitative gain here, so that we can do even more justice to our claim of providing pupils with more support individually, but also together in a class," said Piwarz.

The Ministry of Education is responding to the declining performance level of pupils in the so-called basic skills of reading and writing, which was made clear by the IQB Education Trend 2021, for example. Although Saxony's education system is at the top in a Germany-wide comparison with Bavaria, the decline compared to previous studies is worrying and alarming, said Piwarz. "It is not enough for us to continue to be at the forefront in Germany. We need to create positive developments and reverse the trend."

The lessons, which are being introduced in the first two grades, replace the previous so-called initial lessons, which schools were able to use flexibly. According to Piwarz, this measure is therefore resource-neutral. Additional staff will have to be hired for the additional lessons in grades three and four. Piwarz estimated that a low three-digit number of teachers would be required. According to the information, the schools in the Sorbian settlement area can decide for themselves whether they use the additional lessons for German or Sorbian.