The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden reported a slight decline in the rate of students repeating grades during the 2022/2023 school year. According to the latest data released on Tuesday, 2.3 percent of students in general schools repeated a class in the last academic year, compared to 2.4 percent in the previous year.

The variability in the number of grade repeaters was influenced by changes in transfer regulations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary information suggests that the nationwide rate of students held back decreased significantly to 1.4 percent in the 2020/2021 school year. However, in the three preceding school years, the rate had fluctuated between 2.3 and 2.4 percent.

In total, approximately 148,800 students in the 2022/2023 school year either had not been promoted previously or chose to repeat voluntarily. This marked a decrease of 7,000 compared to the previous school year. It's important to note that data for Saarland in the 2022/2023 school year was not available.

The gender distribution among repeaters in the 2022/2023 school year showed that 56 percent were male, while 44 percent were female. This indicates that 2.5 percent of all students repeated a grade, with a slightly lower percentage of female students, standing at two percent.

Significant variations were observed among the individual federal states, with Bavaria having the highest proportion at 4.1 percent of students repeating a grade in the 2022/2023 school year. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also reported a relatively high rate at 3.8 percent.

In contrast, Berlin had the lowest repeat rate at 1.0 percent, followed by Schleswig-Holstein at 1.2 percent and Bremen at 1.4 percent. It's worth noting that transfer regulations vary across different federal states.

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