This blog was written by Moritz Neujeffski, School of Data Germany team.
School of Data Germany, a project by Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland, helps non-profit organisations, civil rights defenders and activists to understand and use data and technology effectively to increase their impact on societal challenges. Profound knowledge in processing data allows individuals and organisations to critically reflect and to influence public debates with evidence-based arguments.
Jedeschule.de is the outcome of our first partnership with BildungsCent eV. Together we explored the programs schools in Germany offer students beside general lessons and advocated for a transparent German education system. While we definitely learned a lot about the school system in Germany, we provided specially tailored Workshops for BildungsCent eV. We addressed how to clean, analyse and visualise data and what pitfalls to look out for in digital projects.
Education is more than school lessons. Character and drive often develop outside the classroom. Public information on schools in Germany is sparse and not often available in a structured and organised format. Together with BildungsCent eV., we investigated the availability and access of data on schools in Germany.
The focus of our investigation: How is data on schools best communicated to the public? How does that affect the potential of schools to be important social hubs?
Findings of our analysis: Jedeschule.de
Parents, students, teachers, politicians, and civil society organisations benefit from enhanced information on the German school system that is provided on Jedeschule.de. School of Data Germany and BildungsCent eV. campaigned for more transparency in the educational sector and promoted dialogues between stakeholders in educational policy.We also provided an overview of more than 30,000 schools of general education in Germany.
The interactive map makes it possible to search for and filter according to specific school types. The educational sector differs among the 16 German federal states. We gathered information on the development of each individual school system, public spending within the educational sector, and the employment situation of teachers for each state.
Moreover, 3,000 profiles for schools in Berlin and Saxony containing their mission statements, the number of students and teachers per school, study groups and cooperations between schools and actors from civil society, public departments, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders were set up. All this data as used in the project is available as open data on our website.
Our aim is to facilitate the use of educational data by journalists, politicians, scientists, the civic tech community, and stakeholders of educational policy.
Concluding remarks on school activities & cooperations in Berlin and Saxony
- 413 out of 800 general education schools in Berlin communicate their activities to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Family.
- On average, they provide eight activities in at least four areas such as environment, literature, handcraft, and technology besides regular lessons.
- In Saxony, 1206 out of 1500 schools of general education report to the statistical office.
- In total, they offer 11,600 activities. On average, this amounts to ten activities in five different areas per school.
- Sporting activities are most prominent in both federal states. Partners from civil society and public affairs are the highest among schools in both states.
Schools promote the well-being and development of children and adolescents through diverse projects, partners, and activities. They are an important component of the livelihood and learning environment of students and provide an important perspective on society.
To establish a holistic picture of the German school system and to increase transparency and the ability to compare federal states on educational matters, data has to be better collected, organised, and structured at the state level. Administrations, especially need to improve their performance in order to foster an effective debate on the German school system.
Open Knowledge Foundation Germany is a nonprofit organization that advocates open knowledge, open data, transparency, and civil participation.
