Barbara Sommer

Barbara Sommer (born December 15, 1948 in Bielefeld ) is a German politician ( CDU ). From 2005 to 2010 she was Minister for Schools and Further Education for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in the Rüttgers cabinet .

Family, education and work

Barbara Sommer is a Protestant and the mother of five children. She is married to the entrepreneur Herbert Sommer , who was President of the East Westphalia Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bielefeld . After her school days, in which she had to repeat the 9th grade, Barbara Sommer studied from 1968 to 1971 at the Pedagogical University of the Saarland and then worked at a primary school in Bielefeld, first as a teacher and later as rector. In 1992 she became a school councilor in the education authority for the Herford district and in 1995 a school councilor for the Gütersloh district . From 1997 onwards she was the director of the education authority. From 2005 to 2010 Barbara Sommer was Minister in Rüttger's cabinet .

politics

There have been a number of changes in school policy since Summer took office as minister. The first reforms were introduced with the new, uniform school law for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (2005) in the 2006/07 school year. The so-called third decree was deleted , according to which the evaluation of class work had to be approved by the school management as soon as a third of the participants had achieved an insufficient grade.

In addition, six top notes were introduced at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia , but after massive criticism, reduced to three a year later. The Ministry responded to criticism of the lack of validity of top notes by pointing out the success and broad acceptance of the top notes.

There were also changes in the choice of school type after primary school. For this, the recommendation of the primary school teacher was decisive, which could be contradicted by the parents if necessary with the help of a test procedure carried out by third-party experts. Finally, the school time up to the Abitur was shortened by the 9 + 3 model, which ends the grammar school after the 9th school year and which maintains a three-year upper level.

From 2005 to 2009, 7,874 new teaching positions were created in North Rhine-Westphalia despite the falling number of pupils. The statistically recorded loss of lessons could be reduced to the value of 2.0 percent in 2008, which corresponds to a reduction of 55% since 2005 in the interpretation of the then state government. According to the NRW Ministry of Education, this is the lowest value measured to date. The way in which the statistical recording of classes that have been given or not taken is controversial. The opposition rejected the measures as inadequate.

The new NRW School Act was praised by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research in the “School Policy Check”, which compares the reform efforts of the individual federal states in school policy since 2006. It met with criticism from the opposition and teachers' associations.

In the state election in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010 they missed the direct mandate in parliament constituency Bielefeld I . Was elected Günter Garbrecht (SPD). Since the CDU's state list was not used, Sommer was no longer a member of the new state parliament .

Abitur examination North Rhine-Westphalia 2008

In the Abitur exams in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2008, there were a number of problems - incomplete, incorrect or confusing information - with the tasks in the subjects of mathematics , geography , pedagogy , biology and history . In mathematics, this sometimes led to poor grades and a large number of re-examinations. In the other subjects, the effects were less severe.

In response to criticism of the crisis management in her ministry, Barbara Sommer said on June 5, 2008: “I have five children myself and four of them have already graduated from high school. And all of them had to be checked. This is normal. ”She later mentioned that the students could object to the exam and take it again, but this was relativized by her spokesman. On June 9th, the ministry made an offer to all affected students to retake the math exam. Since 2009 high school graduation assignments have been subjected to additional exams before they are made available to schools.

swell

1. ^ Speech on December 11, 2008 at the closing event for the Year of Mathematics in Cologne.
2. ↑ Barbara Sommer: "A chance for poorer students". In: General-Anzeiger Bonn. January 18, 2008, accessed February 16, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Press release School Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia: School Minister Barbara Sommer at the end of the school year ( Memento from January 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ bildungsklick.de
5. ^ Annika Joeres : North Rhine-Westphalia: Coalition disputes over the cancellation of lessons. In: fr-online.de . January 13, 2009, accessed December 18, 2014 . 
6. ↑ www.spd-fraktion.landtag.nrw.de
7. ↑ North Rhine-Westphalia is nationwide leader in school policy , NRW.de from May 27, 2008
8. ^ Forum School ( Memento from March 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ http://www.rp-online.de/public/article/beruf/bildung/165947/Opposition-verschaerft-Kritik-an-neuem-Schulgesetz.html (link not available)
10. ^ The new school law press echo ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ derwesten.de of May 10, 2010; Even ministers fell by the wayside ( Memento from May 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Armin Himmelrath: Incomprehensible, unclear, unsolvable: The Abi chaos of North Rhine-Westphalia. In: Spiegel Online . June 4, 2008, accessed December 18, 2014 .