Rising School Dropout Rates in Germany
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of students leaving school without graduating in Germany. The Education and Science Union (GEW) in Lower Saxony is calling for more support for students. In the 2022/2023 academic year, around 7.7% of students, or 5,895 out of 76,856, left school without a diploma. This rate had already risen from 6.0% in 2020/2021 to 6.7% in 2021/2022, following the pandemic. Due to the increasing workload, teachers struggle to provide sufficient attention to students, which contributes to the dropout issue.
GEW warns that the situation could worsen due to teacher shortages and emphasizes the need for more individualized teaching to support vulnerable students. Moreover, the absence of social workers, special education teachers, and psychological support in many schools makes it difficult to address the diverse challenges faced by students. The union is calling on the government to improve staffing and funding and to deploy multidisciplinary teams across schools to reduce dropout rates sustainably.
In Lower Saxony, businesses have also stressed the importance of preparing young people for the workforce. As of August 2024, there were 13,479 unfilled apprenticeship positions in the region.
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