Saxony's education reform: Minister of Education visits Stollberg's old town school!

Saxony's education reform: Minister of Education visits Stollberg's old town school!

On June 17, 2025, Saxony's Minister of Culture Conrad Clemens visited the old town school in Stollberg. The aim of this visit was to improve teaching provision in the region, where the teacher Daniel Drescher presented, among other things, a variety of musical instruments in the music room. Many of these instruments come from the teacher's personal possessions and are part of the extensive all-day offerings that Drescher organizes in addition to traditional lessons. These initiatives are intended to help expand the educational offerings for students. With a focus on musical education, the school not only wants to offer students a solid academic foundation, but also creative opportunities for development.

Minister Clemens' visit came at a critical time, as the number of lessons canceled in Saxony in the first half of the 2024/2025 school year had reached 9.4% - an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. In order to respond to the challenges of providing lessons, the minister presented proposals for reducing the number of lessons canceled on March 11, 2025. These measures are due to come into force from the 2025/2026 school year and aim to promote educational equality.

Planned measures to improve teaching provision

The 21 concrete proposals that Clemens presented include a number of measures that are intended to strengthen both the personnel and structural support of schools. These include:

• Personelle Stärkung der Oberschulen durch den Einsatz von Gymnasial- und Grundschullehrkräften.
• Neuregelung der Altersermäßigungen.
• Anpassung von Anrechnungsstunden.
• Einführung von Arbeitszeitguthaben.
• Stärkere Nutzung digitaler Möglichkeiten.
• Entlastungen für Lehrkräfte.

These measures are intended not only to increase the quality of teaching, but also to help combat the acute shortage of teachers in Saxony, as there is currently a shortage of at least 1,400 full-time teachers. The proposals are expected to be approved by the Ministry of Culture at the end of May and are intended to help significantly reduce the number of lessons canceled.

In this context, Clemens emphasized the need to focus on educational equality in Saxony. This is particularly important given the increasing challenges facing schools in the Free State. The visit to the old town school in Stollberg could therefore be seen as a symbolic step to draw attention to the existing problems in education policy.

Developments will continue to be closely monitored as schools in Saxony look for solutions to meet increasing demands and expectations. The combination of creative offers, as can be seen in the example of the old town school, and structural reforms should help to improve the situation.

For more information on current initiatives in the education sector, take a look at the article by freipresse.de and the statements of medienservice.sachsen.de.