Germany to increase support for highly gifted students

Brussels, 18 Apr 2006

'The future of our country depends, to a large extent, how successful we are in building up an achieving elite,' said German Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan, announcing new support for intellectually gifted students.

The minister announced a new goal of supporting one per cent of all students with a grant by 2009. This will represent a 50 per cent increase. Currently, around 0.7 per cent of all students benefit from support for gifted students. The increase will begin immediately, with the government increasing support by 7.2 million euro to 87.7 million in 2006.

'We have to do everything we can so that highly qualified young people see opportunities here,' said Ms Schavan. 'This is not a case of rewarding individual students for good grades,' she continued. 'Rather, we would like to reach a point wherein young people are embarking upon a career that corresponds to their competences.'

Support for gifted students is not limited to money. Tutors provide personal support, as well as the soft skills needed in order to be competitive in the job market.

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2005
Item source