Saturday, October 14, 2023

Three German News Stories

1.  The IQB (educational folks) organization went and did a survey on German 15-year old kids.  What they say?  About one out of three German kids in this group can't read at their level.....in fact, they use the term.....reading at the most marginal level expected of a 15-year old kid.  This also goes over to reading comprehension....where one out of three can't comprehend what they read or what it means.

Oddly, the test covered English, and kids seem over the past couple of years to have improved their English knowledge/use.

So you can ask the question....are German kids developing a long-term problem?  This survey was careful not to suggest that kids are only reading at the 5th grade level, but after reading the piece several times....I kinda wonder if this is the consequence of crappy school instruction.

But the hidden part of this story?  You kinda wonder....this group of one-third of kids....are they mostly migrant-kids (non-German)?  I paused over this and would suspect that if you did arrive in the past five years....it's a pretty good chance that if you were in the test group here....you probably don't speak/read/write that well in German (even if you had five years of school).

2.  WELT had a piece coming from the EU leadership....suggesting a massive wave of refugees is likely out of the Palestinian-Israel war.  Who gets them, or will accept this?  Unknown.  

Hamas eventually networked into Europe?  I don't think any country wants that type of arrangement.

3.   Frankfurt court stepped in and have approved a Palestinian demonstration for today (Sat), when the city authorities had forbid it.  Probably to be a large police presence.  

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