Dear readers, what are your experiences with the education system? Expert and best-selling author Silke Müller believes that it is on the brink of collapse. She was a headmistress for many years and has now written the book Schule gegen Kinder: How a broken education system is jeopardising the future of the next generation. Our school system is completely broken, in which she takes stock of the current situation and presents radical solutions. She criticises dilapidated buildings, outdated curricula, unequal opportunities, overburdened children and burnt-out teachers, speaking of „learning conditions like those in a ruinous administration“. She denounces the fact that the basic structures still date back to the 19th century, with frontal teaching, 45-minute lessons and an early „sorting system“ that perpetuates inequality. Added to this are 16 parallel school systems in the federal education system and an investment backlog of almost 68 billion euros.
She goes so far as to say that school robs children of their life chances… and calls for a radical rethink. Because the current education system is often far removed from the reality of pupils‘ lives, because the system is unfair, because the potential of digital infrastructure is not being exploited.
She wants nothing less than revolutionary learning methods and visionary ideas for a reform that makes schools humane, fair and future-proof. Currently, pupils are achieving the worst PISA reading scores ever. Added to this is the psychological strain on pupils and teachers. For every teacher who retires at the normal age, there are two to two and a half who leave early due to frustration or burnout, which could lead to a shortage of up to 200,000 teachers by 2035.
How does she think this could work? She is calling for ten years of secure basic funding, an independent block budget for each school and a clear link between state funding and quality targets. At the same time, she advocates a completely new understanding of learning. The rigid subject canon must be abolished and replaced by interdisciplinary, project-oriented learning formats. Müller considers exams that test factual knowledge alone to be outdated in view of generative AI; instead, she calls for task formats in which pupils reflectively demonstrate how they have worked with AI and critically evaluated information.
Perhaps the most radical proposal concerns the political structure: education must be depoliticised. Müller calls for a state treaty on education, nationally binding core competencies and a National Education Council with real decision-making power. And moving between federal states should no longer pose a risk to education – a nationally compatible system is essential.
Ms. Müller, in your book „Schule gegen Kinder“ (School Against Children), you criticise the school system for clinging to structures that date back to the 19th century and that we know are harmful to children’s learning and mental health. How did this come about?
We cling to them because it is convenient for the administration, not because it makes sense from an educational point of view. The 45-minute cycle was introduced in Prussia in 1911 to adapt schools to factory shifts, not to children’s biorhythms. And the fact that we still use the six-point grading scale standardised by the Nazis in 1938 for selection purposes is a scandal that we choose to ignore. We cling to these frameworks because they give the illusion of comparability. But we have to decide: do we want to manage children or do we want to educate them? For me, the answer is clear: we must abandon these structures and establish new forms.According to the IQB Education Trend 2024, one third of ninth-graders fail to meet the minimum standards in mathematics, and we have achieved the worst results ever in PISA. You warn that we are squandering the only raw material Germany has: bright minds.
Why is education not at the top of the political agenda?
Because the truth hurts. We engage in sham debates so we don’t have to admit that our education system is bankrupt. When a third of ninth-graders fail basic arithmetic, we’re not talking about a minor blip in the statistics. We’re talking about these young people not being able to complete vocational training in the trades or industry later on. We are producing educational poverty with the benefit of hindsight.
How did this happen?
The problem is home-grown: we push children through overloaded curricula that are designed for ‚bulimic learning‘ – i.e. short-term memorisation and forgetting – instead of promoting genuine understanding. We test reproduction, while the world outside demands problem solving. Those who do not understand word problems will later fail not only in maths, but also in their tenancy agreements or party manifestos. This is not only an economic disaster for Germany as a business location, it is also explosive for our democracy.
We need to return to basic skills – reading, writing, arithmetic – but with modern methods that suit every child, instead of forcing everyone through the same bottleneck. You advocate radically decluttering the curriculum and instead introducing ‚life‘ as a subject – with topics such as understanding contracts, finance, or digital self-defence.
What do you say to critics who are concerned that traditional knowledge and performance will fall by the wayside?
To them I say: look at reality. What good is it if a child can write a poem analysis but fails at a rental agreement or falls for fake news? In the 21st century, performance is no longer defined by memorising facts – machines can do that better. Today, real achievement means creativity, critical thinking and collaboration. When we introduce ‚life‘ as a subject, we are not lowering the standard, we are raising it to a relevant level. We are empowering children for their future.
How have AI and social media changed everyday school life?
If we are honest, social media and artificial intelligence have not simply changed everyday school life – they have undermined the previous logic of school. We are at a historic moment where everything is changing. Young people spend over 70 hours a week online. We feel the consequences of constant digital bombardment every day in the
Classrooms: conflicts do not end at the school gates, but are prolonged digitally and escalate through cyberbullying, which affects almost 20 per cent of pupils. AI is even more drastic than social media. It is fundamentally changing our understanding of knowledge and truth. Children no longer use ChatGPT just for homework – which is then done in seconds, killing off the traditional homework system. But what pains me most is that children turn to chatbots for emotional support because we adults often don’t have the time or energy to listen. We are driving children into digital loneliness. What do you think this means for schools in concrete terms?
We need a radical reorientation on three levels:
1. We must make school a safe space again. Specifically, this means that banning smartphones during breaks is not a step backwards, but self-defence, so that children can play and talk to each other again instead of swiping alongside each other. We need a „social media consultation hour“ at every school so that children have a safe place to talk about what disturbs them online. 2. We need real competence instead of one hour of media studies. I call for a fixed digital day per week on which programming, source criticism and AI understanding are taught as compulsory subjects. Children need to learn how to write good prompts, critically evaluate results and use AI as a tool. And, of course, we need to change the exam culture. If AI can write any essay, we need to stop evaluating the end product. We need to evaluate the process, strengthen oral exams and use formats that require critical thinking.
3. AI replaces knowledge, but not the heart. If machines can take over knowledge transfer and routine tasks, school must become a place where relationship building, empathy and democracy education take centre stage. In your ‚Roadmap for a Better School System‘, you call for nothing less than the end of educational federalism in its current form.
Do you believe that politicians are brave enough to hand over powers to a ‚National Education Council‘ in order to ensure continuity beyond legislative periods?
I don’t know whether politicians have the courage to do so – but they really have no choice anymore. In its current form, our federalism is a ‚catalogue of absurdities‘ with around 180 different types of schools. No one can explain why educational opportunities depend on your postcode. I call for a National Education Council that sets binding standards and depoliticises education so that reforms are not reversed after every legislative period. We finally need uniformity on the big issues.
