65,000 pupils leave German schools without qualifications

The number of young people leaving school in Germany without a qualification has risen sharply again, reaching around 65,000 in the 2024-25 school year, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office, reported dpa.

The figure was up from 62,000 in the previous school year and 56,000 in 2022-23. The data were obtained by the left-wing populist BSW party and are also available in the statistical office's databases.

Ten years earlier, in 2014-15, about 47,400 school leavers had no qualification. The number rose to around 53,000 by 2018-19 before falling temporarily during the Covid-19 pandemic, possibly in part because of more lenient examination requirements. It has risen steadily since then.

The proportion of school leavers without at least a basic secondary school qualification has also increased. They accounted for about 5.5% of school leavers in 2013-14, 6.6% in 2018-19 and 8.4% in 2024-25, the highest rate in 20 years. The share was higher around the turn of the millennium.

Germany, known for its tradition of poets and thinkers, must not increasingly become a country of school dropouts and people without vocational qualifications, BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht said.

"If 65,000 pupils leave school without a qualification, that is a state-organized shortage of skilled workers," she said.

Education was a matter of national importance and should not be undermined by excessive fragmentation under Germany's federal system, Wagenknecht said. Education policy and schools are the responsibility of Germany's 16 federal states.