In addition to the return to the nine-year secondary school, the further development of community schools is one of the most important educational policy projects of the state government. With the amendment of the community school regulations for the upcoming school year 2025/2026, community schools will be provided with structures and tools to enable them to modernize. The goal: to make community schools fit for the future.
Minister of Education Christine Streichert-Clivot explains: “More than half of young people choose the path to a community school after primary school. The demand for this type of school remains stable even after the decision to reintroduce G9 at grammar schools. With the changes presented, we are addressing the needs of young people, reflecting their realities, and strengthening the pedagogical options for teachers in terms of individual support.”
The key innovations at a glance
1. Strengthening career orientation
At community schools, students can earn three qualifications. In addition to the Abitur, they can also obtain the Hauptschule certificate and the intermediate school certificate. With an early start and a stronger connection to everyday life, we support students from the beginning in their career orientation. This is embedded in the curricula and is also a part of the examination process for the Hauptschule and intermediate school certificates, serving as a partial exam. From grade 5 onwards, students receive targeted insights into various professional fields. Starting in grade 7, students create a personal portfolio. From grade 8, career planning is further intensified and firmly anchored in the school concept through company visits, internships, and projects. Additionally, a framework for voluntary internships is established. This demonstrates the good cooperation with business and employee associations, labor market administration, and initiatives such as the "Berufswahlsiegel" or "ALWIS Saarland," which are sustainably integrated into the school design.
2. Promotion of digital and computer science education:
Actively accompanying the digital transformation is a core task of education policy. Young people should be able to navigate the digital world confidently and competently. At the same time, they need the knowledge to recognize and influence changes brought about by AI and algorithms. With the new community school regulation from grade 7 to grade 10, the subject of computer science is anchored in the timetable with a total of 6 weekly hours per year to best prepare students for the digital world.
In recent years, the Ministry of Education and Culture has also expanded the corresponding personnel resources, especially at community schools. A total of 95 teachers at community schools have completed training as computer science teachers. Currently, a further 57 teachers are undergoing training in the current courses.
3. Strengthening Democracy Education
Schools are places of democracy. Knowledge about how our democracy functions is just as important as understanding the possibilities for participation, along with strengthened media and information literacy.
The number of hours for the subject of religion was adjusted in grade 10 to match that of grammar schools. The social sciences (GW) subject group was increased by one hour. This GemSVO is meant to send a clear signal to further strengthen the participation needs of young people in schools. The topics of democracy promotion, the school participation law, as well as subjects like religion and ethics, are interconnected here. It is about generating knowledge in the school context, but also gaining experience of self-efficacy. To support the schools, there will be a compendium that makes democratic education visible across the various subjects.
4. Promotion of foreign language skills:
The sustainable promotion of multilingualism throughout the education system is one of the defining features of Saarland's education policy. English and French are not in competition with each other. In the future, there will be a greater offering of school places with French as the first foreign language. Starting from a five-stream system (5 classes per grade), at least one French class will now be newly established at all comprehensive school locations with English as the first foreign language; with a six-stream system (6 classes per grade), at least 2 French classes. This will facilitate regional school transfers.
In addition to the first foreign language, the other foreign language is taught as a basic subject for two hours in grades 5 and 6 and is recorded on the report card as "Language-forming instruction / Foreign language (English/French)" with a grade.
5. More freedom for individual lesson design and the strengthening of basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic:
In the proposed timetable, the total hours to be taken for each subject from grades 5 to 10 are indicated in blocks. A division of hours across the individual grade levels is no longer planned. This is intended to give schools greater flexibility in timing the subject lessons across the different grades. This allows schools to focus on areas where their students currently need more in-depth learning, for example in reading, writing, or arithmetic in the lower grades. The hours previously allocated as contingent hours are now fixed in the timetable, primarily assigned to the subjects of German and Mathematics.
But even outside of interdisciplinary instruction, the new regulation creates more opportunities for individual support. For example, in grades 5 and 6, additional support can now be provided temporarily in parallel to language-building instruction, especially in the area of German as a second language (DaZ) or in the basic skills of reading and writing.
6. Future Profiling of Community Schools Possible
Feedback from the community schools is clear: there is a strong desire for more autonomy, independence, and flexibility in order to give their own schools a convincing educational and school cultural identity with a clearly recognizable profile. To support this, community schools will in future receive greater scope for action through the redesign of the elective compulsory area (WPB) as a profile area. This adjustment enables the schools to offer tailored, attractive, and locally accessible programs for every child in their own school and teaching development. Current examples of profile subjects include foreign languages, nature and environment in connection with education for sustainable development or FREI DAY, cultural education, music and art, or sports profiles.
7. Examination Regulations HSA and MBA
As part of the revision, the examinations for the Hauptschulabschluss (HSA) and the Mittlerer Bildungsabschluss (MBA) are also being modernized. The examination regulations for the HSA and MBA are now designed to be more competence-oriented and process-oriented. Instead of a single exam at the end of the school year, the exam components are spread throughout the school year, allowing students to demonstrate their competencies in different formats and time periods. This is where the new performance assessment decree comes into effect, which focuses on differentiated performance evaluation that takes individual learning progress into greater account and integrates new digital examination formats. As a quality-assuring part of the final exam, one of the four exam components for the HSA is conducted as a statewide comparative test in German and Mathematics, and for the MBA additionally in the first foreign language.
Accompanying Measures and Training
The implementation of the new regulation is accompanied by extensive information and training programs. Starting from November 20, 2024, seven regional events will take place at the Education Campus to familiarize schools with the changes and prepare them for the upcoming tasks. Teachers can further qualify themselves through training opportunities at the Education Campus as early as February 2025.
The revision of the community school regulations was accompanied by a broad and transparent participation process. It was prepared in a working group with representatives from the AG Community School Principals and the chairman of the main staff council of the community schools. Since spring 2023, the process and the projects have been supported by an advisory participation forum with representatives of associations, trade unions, organizations, the state student council, interest groups, and participation committees.
Background
