Rethinking cooperation between internal and external school matters

The Education Digitalisation Forum is committed to systemic change and a sustainable digital transformation in the education sector. A central cornerstone of the school system in Germany is the separation into so-called internal and external school matters, which essentially means that the federal states, and on their behalf the ministries of education and cultural affairs, are responsible for internal school matters, while the local authorities as school boards are responsible for external school matters. The head teachers are also responsible for the operational functioning of the schools and may be torn between these two levels. According to the findings of the Cornelsen school management study carried out by FiBS, they do not feel that they are treated as equals on the one hand and want significantly more decision-making powers in key areas on the other.
The reorganisation - or at least further development - of internal and external school matters has been discussed for years; other countries are taking significantly different paths here (OECD 2011). It was also argued there that pupil performance is better in countries where schools have greater autonomy. The aim of this impulse paper is to stimulate discussion and provide concrete suggestions for further debate.