New marking system and conversion in Germany – update

New marking system and conversion in Germany – update

12/2019  The application of the New Marking Scale (NMS) and of the new conversion of the new marks into the national systems started this school year 2019-20 from the current S6 classes. At present both lead to a clear downgrading, as shown in the annexes 1 and 2, provided by the Brussels Parents’ Associations.
We met the new German Inspector, Mr Buchmaier, together with members of the Educational Council and students’ representatives. Mr Buchmaier understands our position and requests, in particular since the NMS stills seems to be applied incorrectly. He suggested a round table including the German Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK, responsible for the conversion to the German system), the General Secretariat and parents’ representatives. We were happy to agree to this suggestion and will send two representatives.
The Joint Teaching Committee (JTC), a body at European level, had its meeting a bit earlier. The memo of their October meeting (annex 3) reports on the NMS starting in the middle of page 2. The diplomatic language cannot conceal the fact that application of the NMS still offers quite some room for improvement, the guidelines for application are incomplete and the conversion tables, in particular for Germany, should be urgently revised.
In our opinion we are one step closer to a correct and intended application of the NMS and a revision of the conversion table. Nevertheless, we still have some ground to cover.
Merry Christmas and a good start in 2020,
Parents’ Association of the European School Munich, German Language Section

 

Annexes:

1 – Bedeutung von Einzelnoten in Deutschland 04.12.2019

2 – Auswirkungen KMK Umrechnung 04.12.2019

3 – Memo JTC October 2019

Flavio Carsughi
f.carsughi@gmail.com