Federal Education and Family Minister Karin Prien has announced the introduction of mandatory language tests for all four-year-olds across the country to better prepare them for school. According to Prien, the first step is to empower parents and then provide targeted support in kindergartens. “No support without diagnosis” she emphasized, stating the need to identify language and German proficiency gaps among four-year-olds and provide mandatory support for children with deficiencies. The federal government will support the implementation of pre-school tests and support measures.
Prien aims to reactivate language kindergartens and support kindergartens in socially disadvantaged areas and around schools in the “Startchancen-Programm”. This investment will significantly improve kindergarten quality and construction. The measures will be implemented as soon as possible, as they are crucial for the country’s future. Prien plans to invest billions in kindergartens and schools in the coming years, with a significant portion coming from the infrastructure special fund.
She attributes the increasing number of children who are not school-ready at the time of enrollment to parents’ excessive screen time. Prien emphasizes the importance of parents’ attention, reading and playing with their children for the development of a child. She aims to halve the dropout rate by the middle of the next decade and reduce the dropout rate to half by 2035 through better language proficiency diagnosis and support.
Prien also advocates for stricter regulation of mobile phone use in schools, stating that excessive screen time leads to poorer learning outcomes, reduced social skills and psychological problems. She believes that the federal government should provide scientific support for the process of implementing clear and uniform regulations on mobile phone use in schools.