Politicians and educators, celebrities and representatives of the media met in Berlin to discuss learning in the 21st century at the third Education Summit organized by FOCUS-SCHULE. The motto: “We are the school! Why parents, teachers and the business world need to talk more”.

The participants of the interdisciplinary dialogue representing politics, business, parents and school were Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Michael Glos, Berlin’s Senator for Education, Science and Research Jürgen Zöllner, actress Jenny Elvers-Elbertzhagen, Microsoft Germany CEO Achim Berg and Rütli School principal Aleksander Dzembritzki. A main topic of discussion: The “Educational Study Germany 2007”, presented by FOCUS and Microsoft Germany.

FOCUS-SCHULE publisher and host of the event Helmut Markwort explained: “The educational study shows that parents, teachers and the business world need to talk much more about the objectives of formal education. With today’s Education Summit, FOCUS-SCHULE intends to raise awareness for this matter and invites all three groups to participate in a social dialogue. While the Pisa Study assesses students’ performance, our study evaluates the conditions of our educational system: the expectations of parents, teachers and the business world. This is the key problem for the German school system.”

Minister for Economic Affairs Michael Glos added: “Today’s education policy is also economic policy for Germany as a business location. So it should be influenced and co-designed by companies and economic associations as well.“

Jürgen Zöllner argued: “We have to support the overachievers as well as those who cannot or do not want to keep up. There is no either-or. The crucial point is not the discussion about different types of school. It is always about the individual dialogue between student and teacher. And about the willingness of each educator to do everything that is necessary to give students the best-possible support. This is the main point, not the question whether we should combine different types of secondary school or whether it should be determined in fourth or sixth grade which type of secondary school a student should visit.”