BERLIN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Nearly three-quarters of Germans support the central government to take over basic education affairs from local states, according to report results released on Monday at an education conference here.
73 percent of German participants in a survey think the basic education policies should be made by the central government, rather than the federal states. 79 percent find it incompatible with present needs that each state still holds on to its own basic education system. 90 percent believe that the central government should support elementary and secondary schools financially.
However, German federal states are empowered to manage their own education affairs by German Constitution.
The results also show that most Germans want to improve the digitalization in basic education. 84 percent think safe surfing in Internet and on social media should be taught at school. 61 percent consider that programming should be as an important subject as maths and writing.
The survey involving 1,012 German participants has been commissioned by Germany's digital association Bitkom, which has held the conference.
