German education is going through ‘a deep crisis’

For decades, the German vocational training model has demonstrated its excellence, estimates Felix Winkler, school principal in Stuttgart, comparing unemployment rates on both sides of the Rhine: 17.4% for French people under 25 years against 5.7% in Germany.

But for lack of teachers, or the fact of a galloping bureaucracy, this asset and this tradition are now in danger, worries the pedagogue who runs sixteen vocational schools in Baden-Württemberg.

“I fear that in the long term our work-study system based on the quality of the educational offer will lose its appeal”, worries Felix Winkler, at the head of 2,000 teachers and 18,000 students, trained as much in wood crafts and fashion, as in automobiles or design. Siemens and Bosch, pillars of regional industry, gave their name to two of the sixteen schools.

Unprecedented summit

This 58-year-old educator manager no longer knows how to prioritize the problems he faces, so much these…