Scientific Advisory Board in NRW: Impulses for educational equality!

Scientific Advisory Board in NRW: Impulses for educational equality!

There is a breath of fresh air in education policy in North Rhine-Westphalia! With the establishment of a new scientific advisory board by the Ministry of Education, a significant step is being taken to improve the education system. How country.nrw reports, the committee consists of respected scientists who serve as advisors to the ministry.

Schools Minister Dorothee Feller underlines the urgency of including the scientific perspective in decision-making processes. Challenges such as teaching provision, advancing digitalization and equal opportunities in the education sector are the focus of the new initiative. The advisory board should not only take up current findings from educational research, but also incorporate them directly into political decisions.

Composition and objectives of the advisory board

The members of the advisory board include, among others, the language education expert Prof. em. Dr. Michael Becker-Mrotzek from the University of Cologne, the mathematics educator Prof. Dr. Susanne Prediger from TU Dortmund and Prof. Dr. Isabell van Ackeren-Mindl from the University of Duisburg-Essen, who deals with questions of educational equity.

The advisory board's central mission is to strengthen basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic as well as to further develop the quality of teaching. A particular focus is on developing strategies to reduce social disparities so that all children and young people receive fair educational opportunities, regardless of their social background. This is an issue that concerns many people in North Rhine-Westphalia: almost 62% of the population see unequal educational opportunities as a serious problem, according to a current survey by the ifo Education Barometer 2023, which is carried out by educational mirror is quoted.

The social perception of the problem

In the survey, it is not only people in North Rhine-Westphalia who express concerns about equal opportunities: there are also similar views in other federal states such as Baden-Württemberg and the northwestern regions. While 57% in Baden-Württemberg and 55% each in the North-West, Middle-East and Middle-West regions consider unequal educational opportunities to be a serious problem, nationwide support for equal education spending for all schools is also high. A clear majority of 72% support an equal distribution of state education spending.

These topics will now be dealt with in a scientifically sound manner by the new advisory board, whereby socially relevant aspects such as migration and integration must also be taken into account. After all, 54% of people in North Rhine-Westphalia also see the lack of integration of children with a migrant background as a serious problem.

Another central work that deals with social disparities and equality in the education system is the collective contribution “Social Disparities, Equal Opportunities and Educational Reform” by Rainer Watermann, Kai Maaz and Markus Szczesny, available in the School Handbook by Sigrid Blömeke ( fachportal-paedagogik.de ). Various approaches to explaining educational inequalities as well as their empirical evidence are explained here, which represents a valuable basis for the work of the new advisory board.

All in all, it shows that the new scientific advisory board in North Rhine-Westphalia puts a clear focus on improving educational opportunities. The time to face the challenges of the education system is now!