Feller fights for fair summer holidays: Bavaria remains tough!

Feller fights for fair summer holidays: Bavaria remains tough!

Education policy is once again simmering in North Rhine-Westphalia. School Minister Dorothee Feller (CDU) has reignited the discussion about the summer holidays. How Mercury reports, she is calling for a nationwide regulation that provides for a late start to the holidays after July. Above all, this should help to better overcome the challenges in the school system in the future. Feller notes that in 2023 there were only nine weeks between the Easter and summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia, which could put a strain on the Abitur exams. Your goal is to ensure there are at least ten weeks between vacations.

A look across the country's border shows that Feller is encountering resistance. Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is sticking to the tried and tested Bavarian holiday rhythm and justifies this with tradition. “We are dealing with a regulation that is over 50 years old,” says Feller critically, referring to today’s demands on the education system. The old rhythm had its origins in times when children had to help with the harvest on their parents' farm. A well-thought-out reform is therefore necessary in order to do justice to the different demands and realities of life.

Changes to the holiday regulations from 2031

The summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia are set until 2030, which provides a clear framework. These are scheduled for the 2025/26 school year, for example from July 14th to August 26th. However, future changes could soon be on the agenda. From 2031, Feller plans to introduce a new regulation that will also take the needs of other federal states into account. A new coordination process on holiday regulations is in prospect, but Feller warns that climatic, economic and transport policy aspects must be taken into account, as well as the holiday habits of families.

The NRW School Ministry is responding to the challenges with quality development initiatives and is planning to introduce central student feedback from autumn. A digital tool called “Skribi” is intended to make it easier to learn written language at 100 primary schools and a new course “German as a second language” will even be anchored as an independent teaching subject until 2036. This shows how diverse the approaches to modern educational design are in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The path to implementation

Compulsory schooling in Germany, which usually begins for children at the age of six and lasts until the age of 18, requires constant adjustment of the framework conditions. The education system is a state matter, which means that educational policy and quality is determined by the individual federal states. However, in this diversity, challenges and differences in the education system are inevitable. Where Bavaria relies on tradition, NRW seeks progress by integrating the new digital requirements into the education sector - and all of this in a constant effort to ensure equal opportunities and the conditions of modern society.

In summary: While NRW is heading towards a transformation, Bavaria remains stuck in its traditions. It remains to be seen whether an agreement will be reached on a new holiday rhythm. The only thing that is certain is that the discussion about the holiday season will continue to heat up, especially when it comes to the future of our children.