A question for all: How can we make education better and fairer?

Large-scale public survey "Education for the future – Taking Germany's pulse" is launched – Everyone can join in at www.bildung2011.de – The initiative runs until March 6 – All results will be published online

How can our education system be improved and made fairer? Germany is being asked to give its own answers to these important questions in a large-scale online public survey entitled "Zukunft durch Bildung – Deutschland will’s wissen" (Education for the future – Taking Germany's pulse). As the biggest exercise of its kind ever undertaken in Germany, the education survey is to kick off on February 14 and will run until March 6. Everyone can join in at www.bildung2011.de. The results will be published online and presented to the German government. The joint initiators of this major online survey are Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the German daily BILD and the Turkish daily Hürriyet. The German Federal President also supports the initiative. "It is important that all children have equal opportunities in getting a good education, regardless of where they are from and what their parent's financial background is," Christian Wulff writes in an article for BILD. "The ball's in your court now: Let us know what you think needs to be done to make education in Germany fit to meet future challenges."

What should we expect our education system to achieve? How will it become better and fairer? Where do we need to spend more, and where should money be saved? From what age should children be attending nursery education? How long should children learn together before they're streamed and split up in different types of school? Finding out people's views on these issues is the task of the Germany-wide public survey. It gives a voice to those who so far have hardly been listened to, and especially the people affected – teachers, pupils, students and parents, but also everyone else interested in education. The online public survey is intended to give fresh impetus to efforts to create a modern, high-performance – but also fair – education system in Germany.

"For decades, one educational reform has followed another. But the problems have remained: Education in Germany is neither good nor fair. This public survey on "Education for the future" gives everyone affected an opportunity to design an education system that would meet their needs," says Dr. Jörg Dräger, Board Member of the Bertelsmann Foundation. Torsten Oltmanns, a Partner with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, adds, "When it comes to education, Germany has put up with mediocrity for too long. That's not good enough for a resource-poor country. Germany can only take on international competitors by mobilizing the talents and skills of its people."

"The questionnaires are going online in German, Turkish and Russian. For anyone who does not have Internet access, BILD is making a printed version available in German. This ensures that as many people as possible can state their views on an issue that is so important to the future," notes deputy editor-in-chief of BILD, Jörg Quoos. Operational partners for this initiative are the opinion polling institute TNS Infratest, the web portal providers GMX and WEB.DE and the online agency "Revolvermänner".

The ambitious public survey "Education for the future – Taking Germany's pulse" is available online at www.bildung2011.de   and consists of around thirty questions covering all areas of education, from kindergarten to continuing professional education. Part of the questionnaire is directed at specific target groups such as parents, pupils or teachers. The strength of the conclusions reached about the public's views will depend on the number of people taking part. The more people that join in, the more meaningful the results. All in all, the questionnaire should not take longer than fifteen minutes to fill in. The questionnaire is completely anonymous, with the data being used only for evaluation and then deleted.