NRW elementary school children have problems with writing and arithmetic

More and more primary school children in North Rhine-Westphalia have problems in math and German. In a five-year comparison, the fourth graders have clearly fallen behind in their skills in these subjects. This is shown by a study presented by the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) on Monday, which representatively examines the status of the students every five years. The figures for all of Germany had already been presented in July. A comparison by federal states followed.

While 52.7 percent of schoolchildren in NRW achieved the minimum reading standard in 2021, around one in five (21.6 percent) did not. In the comparison year 2016 it was only 15.7. The spelling is even worse. Only 39.6 percent meet the rule standard, while 32.6 percent have significant problems writing correctly to meet the minimum requirements. In 2016, only 23.9 percent had severe spelling problems.

When it comes to arithmetic, almost every second fourth-grader (47.3 percent) manages the intended standard, i.e. what is expected on average from students of this age. However, this means that NRW in Germany is well below the overall figure. The elementary school students in Bavaria achieve a top value of 66.2 percent. 28.1 percent of schoolchildren in NRW have such problems with mathematics that they cannot show the minimum standard. Five years ago, significantly more students were better at math. In 2016, only 19.2 percent failed to meet the minimum standard. This is an increase of 8.9 percentage points.