Educational Policy in Chaotic World Politics: Suggestion from Germany

Abstract

This paper introduces Germany’s recent educational policy situation and gives some consideration to it, outlining the political trend in these years. In the German Parliamentary election held in 2017, the“Alternative fürDeutschland”(AfD), which strongly opposes the government’s refugee acceptance policy, has made a big leap forward. Germany has a strong economy at the moment, but it faces a difficult problem with regard to its politics. Concerning the educational policies, three can be cited as educational measures that Germany is focusing on : expansion of“Ganztagsschule”(all-day school), strengthen- ing of the pre-school language education and introduction of the legally binding educational standard. It is also interesting that a national attainment test, named VERA, just like in Japan is introduced. It is also striking that many schools implement short-term intensive German education by establishing so called“welcome class”in order to promote the integration of immigrant children. The present German educational policy can be seen as a“bricolage”against various problems rather than a systematic program based on a consistent political philosophy.