IGES | Education
The European Union’s “Lisbon Strategy” and the German Federal Government’s “Agenda 2010” are based on the assumption that European countries like Germany can only maintain their position in the global competition if they tip the scales in their favor with the intellectual and innovative potential of their citizens and industries. It is generally acknowledged that Germany has to make fi nancial and intellectual investments into the educational sector.
The so-called “PISA shock” has also contributed to this: German pupils attain considerably lower scores than pupils from comparable countries. But, above all, we are confronted with a paradoxical situation: Despite of forty years of school policy under the heading of equal opportunities in the west and east Germany, unlike other countries, became a place where educational opportunities depend on the social background of pupils.
Neither the empirical basis nor the experience gained with alternate models have been developed in the educational sector to the same extent they have already been developed in the health care sector. This is an additional starting point for IGES to introduce its 30 years’ experience in research, development, and consulting.
