Ministerial tail

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The so-called ministerial tail (popular term) refers to the fact that someone who has failed a state examination for the second time can exceptionally make a third attempt.

In Germany, a number of courses such as law or teacher training courses are completed with a state examination . After failing it for the first time, there is a legal right to a second attempt. The legal claim is derived from general principles as well as from Art. 12 GG , according to which freedom of access to the profession is to be guaranteed. After a failed repeat examination, if the examination regulations so provide, there is only the possibility of a third attempt (second repeat examination) upon request and only under certain conditions. Since the approval was previously granted exclusively by the ministry, and even earlier even by the minister personally, the derisive term “ministerial tail” that was customary at the time has been retained.

Regulations

The regulations are quite different for the different courses and federal states; Different regulations can even apply within a training course. In NRW, for example, a second repeat examination in the second state examination is expressly excluded. In the  teaching post in North Rhine-Westphalia, approval is granted by the responsible state examination office.