Computer science education in Germany resembles a patchwork quilt

With the Informatics Monitor, the Gesellschaft für Informatik has published a comparative overview of the design of informatics education in Germany, reflecting the state of informatics education as of August 2020. Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are the front-runners in terms of computer science instruction at the lower secondary level.

Saxony was the first German state to introduce a compulsory subject of computer science in 1992 and has extended this to all types of schools in grades 7-10 since 2017. Since 2019, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has been the only federal state to offer mandatory computer science instruction for all students throughout grades five to ten.

In only three federal states is computer science instruction mandatory in the introductory phase of upper secondary school: Bavaria (two hours per week), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony (one hour per week each). In 13 states, computer science is offered as an elective course.