German education decline: Test scores continue falling in math, chemistry and physics

According to the “IQB Education Trend 2024,” which Humboldt University in Berlin presented today, and which were leaked to Bild newspaper, “fewer and fewer of the 48,000 students tested are achieving the standard standards and are failing the minimum requirements more often than in 2012 and 2018.”

These tests focus on math, biology, chemistry, and physics, considered key areas that underpin Germany’s technology and industrial edge.

Bild reports that in 2024, almost 9 percent of all ninth-graders failed to reach the minimum standard for a math certificate for a Hauptschule. The German school system is broken into different types of “schools,” with a Haupschule considered the “vocational school.” In other words, many students are even failing to reach the minimum math standards for the much lower standards expected in the “vocational track.”

Furthermore, those students who go on to high school are increasingly failing to receive the Mittlere Reife (MSA) in 10th grade, equivalent to a high school diploma in the United States. The study found that a whopping 34 percent fail to reach the minimum standard in math for this certificate.

Nearly a quarter of students (24 percent) aiming for this school-leaving certification (MSA) completely fail the math requirement, and another 25 percent fail in chemistry. In physics, this figure reaches 16 percent, and in biology, it is 10 percent.

This all marks worse scores than in past studies, showing a 5 percent higher number of students failing the biology exam, 9 percent more failing the chemistry exam, and 7 percent more failing the physics exam.

Many Gymnasium students, considered to be the best students in Germany, are also falling short of these standards.

Mass migration, a driver of education failure

Although there are a number of factors driving this collapse in the German education system, mass migration continues to be a major factor, if not the most definitive factor.

The study from Humboldt notes that the children of foreign nationals and refugees continue to perform worse in all subjects, including math, chemistry and physics, than classmates without a migration background.

The Humboldt study offers the same “solutions” that nearly every other researcher has offered for years, including better language support. This mantra has been repeated while the German education system continues its free fall. Notably, there is no suggestion for immigration restriction.

They also call for fewer career changes, such as teachers leaving for a new school. The problem is that many of the migrant-heavy school districts feature high-stress environments. In schools across Germany, violence is growing, in large part due to foreigners and students with a foreign background. Teachers point to violence in their schools, harassment of women, and conflict between different ethnic groups.

Last month, the new education monitor from the German Economic Institute (IW) and the New Social Market Economy Initiative (INSM) documented the increasingly dire state of the education system. The study’s author, Axel Plünnecke, said the already bad situation has “further deteriorated slightly compared to 2024“ and noted the “situation in Germany’s schools remains bad.“

Plünnecke’s study found that there have been massive drops in the quality of the education system since 2013 compared to 2025. His large-scale study found that “integration and educational opportunities” saw a 43.7-point drop, while school quality saw a 28.2-point drop, and educational poverty rose by 26 points.

He points to 2015, the same year that Angela Merkel opened the border to mass immigration, as the turning point, describing it as a “watershed.”

The main reason? “Excessive demands due to high migration,” wrote Plünnecke.

He noted that many more children arrived in schools than the education ministers thought would be coming.

“In 2015, the school system was overwhelmed and no quick answers were found to the challenges of increased refugee migration,” he wrote.

The decline in test scores and educational achievement has long been predicted by figures like Thilo Sarrazin, the former Bundesbank board member, who wrote in his 2010 book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (“Germany Is Abolishing Itself”) that test scores, including in PISA, would continue to fall due to mass immigration.

Recently, Sarrazin stated that his predictions of educational decline have proven accurate, arguing that international benchmarks such as PISA now show a marked drop in student performance across the board, a trend he attributes largely to immigration-related demographic changes. While acknowledging that digital distractions like mobile phones also play a role, he maintained that the growing share of students from lower-performing backgrounds is the primary driver.

“The fact is not only that the decline of primary education has progressed much further than I expected, but also that there remain roughly the same differences in performance between groups of pupils based on their background,” he said.

Other considerations

Mass immigration is not the only factor, however, driving falling educational achievement. The Humboldt study noted that a drop has been seen across the board, regardless of social or family background.

Nevertheless, a significant gap still remains between students with a migrant background and those without.

The study notes that students are increasingly suffering from mental and social problems at school, and many girls are distracted by war and climate change issues being promoted on social media. The study found that girls complain about social and mental problems on average more than boys; however, these are self-reported results.

The researchers point to the coronavirus years as a potential reason for continued issues in school.

“This disruption could have severely impacted their development and continue to have an impact four years later,” they note.

However, as many other researchers have noted, these downward trends were already in place before the coronavirus crisis, and the issue of mass migration has only accelerated since then.

Notably, Asian countries that rejected mass immigration, such as China, are pulling far ahead of Germany in terms of PISA test results. In addition, China is increasingly outcompeting Germany in key tech areas, green energy and automobile manufacturing.

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Featured image source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-students-falling-behind-in-sciences-mathematics/a-50889094

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