Politics of School Choice in Germany: The Abolition of the Binding Recommendation in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony

ABSTRACT

The German school system is known for its stratified secondary school system following the four-year elementary school. While access to grammar schools was strictly regulated in German school history, most federal states have now strengthened the will of parents and abolished the tradition of binding elementary school recommendations. New in the group of Laender that do not have a binding Gymnasium recommendation are Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony. By analyzing parliament debates, this paper analyzes why Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony abolished the binding elementary school recommendation and have strengthened parental choice for secondary schools.

KEYWORDS:

• binding recommendation
• Germany
• Gymnasium
• parental choice
• school choice policies

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Sources: plenary protocols and school law texts

p-BW, Parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg (2011a). Plenary protocol session No. 18, legislative period No. 15, 10th November 2011.

p-BW, Parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg (2011b). Plenary protocol session No. 20, legislative period No. 15, 7th December 2011. Stuttgart: Parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

p-S, Parliament of Saxony (2017). Plenary protocol No. 48, legislative period No. 6, 1st December 2017. Dresden: Parliament of Saxony.

SSC, Saxon State Chancellery (2021). Saxon School Act in the version of the announcement 27^th September 2018 (SächsGVBl. page 648), which was last amended by article 17 of the Act of 21^st May 2021 (SächsGVBl. page 578). Dresden: Saxon State Chancellery.

Notes

1. In Berlin and Brandenburg, the elementary school have six years and students are transferred to the different secondary schools after the sixth school year.

2. We are happy to share the analytical tables upon request.

3. Before the school law change, students in elementary schools had to have an average of at least 2.5 in German lessons and mathematics to enter the Gymnasium.

4. A binding recommendation was introduced in Baden-Wuerttemberg for the school year 1967/68 (Helbig & Nikolai, 2015, p. 150).

5. At individual school locations the so-called Oberschule+ is linked to elementary schools and enable joint learning from grade 1 to grade 9 or 10.

6. For attending the Gymnasium students had to show an average grade of 2.0 in German lessons, mathematics and science in the elementary school.

7. Parents had filed a suit against Saxon federal state because their daughter had not received a recommendation to attend the Gymnasium (p-S, 2017, p. 4280).