As of: 04/26/2023 4:06 p.m
A text by climate activist Luisa Neubauer in Lower Saxony’s Abitur examinations caused criticism from the CDU parliamentary group. The Ministry of Education considers the worries to be unjustified.
A guest article that the 27-year-old Neubauer wrote for “ZEIT Online” was a possible topic in the Abitur exam in Lower Saxony. In the subject Politics-Economics the essay was “Just because the right people govern doesn’t mean that the right people are governed“A possible task that could be selected for the Abitur exam. The climate activist had announced her joy on Instagram and Twitter.
CDU parliamentary group: Has Minister Hamburg influenced?
That called the education policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Christian Fühner, onto the scene. “I had received inquiries from students and teachers who expressed concern,” said Fühner at the request of the NDR in Lower Saxony. They would have worried about how the task would be rated if one commented critically on the text by Neubauer. The CDU also wanted to know whether Minister of Education Julia Hamburg (Greens) had a direct or indirect influence on the selection of the exam. Because Luisa Neubauer is a member of the Greens.
Ministry of Education: Tasks set before Hamburg takes office
The Lower Saxony Ministry of Education considers the concerns of the CDU to be unfounded. Spokesman Sebastian Schumacher said with a sardonic undertone in the state press conference on Wednesday: “As a service-oriented caring ministry, we would like to take care of the CDU parliamentary group today.” The procedure is absolutely apolitical – not political. The minister is neither a member of the selection committee nor does she approve or submit the tasks. The commission consists of teachers and other experts who had already worked out the tasks for this year’s Abitur in summer 2022. Julia Hamburg wasn’t even in office then.
Teachers had a say in the selection of topics
The selection committee for the Abitur had approved three tasks in the subject of politics and economics. The Neubauer essay dealt with the subject of “political participation and the social market economy,” explains Michael Math, who is responsible for exam development at the Ministry of Education. The subject of the second task was therefore “Social Market Economy in Emerging Markets”. “The material for this is an interview with Dominik Enste, a German economist,” says Math. The third possible task was a text by the Körber Foundation on foreign and security policy.
Neubauer essay not necessarily a possible Abitur task
From the three proposals, the teachers were able to select two tasks for the Abitur in the subject of political economy. It is therefore quite possible that some students did not even get the Neubauer essay as a possible task. Ministry spokesman Sebastian Schumacher confirms that. It is not possible to check which tasks were selected by the teachers for the Abitur.
Political scientist on Abi topics: the question is crucial
“You can use anything as a text, as a basis, when it comes to working through something,” says Monika Oberle, Professor of Political Science and Political Didactics at the University of Göttingen. The exam topics are about critical judgment. If climate policy was already a topic in class, the question is how to classify it. “What matters is what the question is,” emphasizes the professor, who also sits on the advisory board of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
CDU parliamentary group wants to ask questions about Abitur tasks
The Ministry of Education cannot say exactly what the question was about the Neubauer essay. “That’s only possible when the Abitur certificates have been handed over,” says ministry spokesman Schumacher. Then the tasks would be published. The CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament now wants to make a request. To find out how the Abitur tasks came about and which criteria teachers use to evaluate the tasks in the Abitur.
Further information
Keywords for this article
School
