Together for better education: Tuesdays for Education
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Learning in elementary school builds on children's existing skills. With this in mind, the Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS) is investigating the question of how well prepared children are when they start school. According to recent PIRLS analyses, the majority of children in Germany are poorly prepared when they start school. For example, 78 percent of school principals report that less than one in four children have basic reading and writing skills when they start school. In all participating EU countries, this figure is only 41 percent. Parents come to a similar conclusion. According to parents, just 9 percent of children in Germany have "very good" reading-related skills when they start school - the lowest proportion compared to all participating EU countries. The proportion with "not good" skills in Germany is 67 percent. For example, only 15 percent can read some words very well (in the EU: 28%) and only 20 percent can write letters of the alphabet very well (in the EU: 35%).
You can find more information in the press release (German) and in the short report (German).