Schools

Top grades for Heidelberg

Heidelberg is an excellent school and education site. For about  22,000 students the City provides in 54 general educational and vocational schools - 35 out of the 54 are in municipal sponsorship - an outstanding educational offer. For that Heidelberg was attested top grades in the Lernatlas of the Bertelsmann foundation.

Regarding digitalization sustainable and well-placed. Until 2024 the City can benefit from the "Digitalpakt Schule" - a program from the German Federal Government - with a funding of about eight million euros. Fast Internet, media used for presentations in the class rooms and laboratories, a very good equipment with terminal devices as well as comprehensive support for the schools assist the digital teaching and learning.

School for everyone. Heidelberg wants to enable the best possible school-leaving qualification for its students. Thus the City offers voluntarily additional continous language courses (Sprachförderung) at all public elementary schools and at the special education and advisory centre. Low-performance students are promoted by the Heidelberger Unterstützungssystem Schule (HÜS), while the Hector-Kinderakademie as well as the Hector-Seminar support gifted students. Needless to say that all these institutions embrace students with disabilities, too. The Intercultural Parent Tutors support migrants in their specific questions and problems. Connecting them all: the extensive school social work. The city is with that on top of the country and achieved measurable improvements for instance on reducing absenteeism. 

Successful graduation is the rule. More than 97 per cent of the students leave the general education schools with a certificate. Regarding the quota of fourth graders transferring to grammar schools, Heidelberg places at the top position in Baden-Wurttemberg with 62 per cent. 46 per cent of the children from a immigrant background took successfully the step to grammar schools.

Extensive care at elementary schools. In cooperation with the association päd-aktiv which was commissioned by the City, Heidelberg installed at all municipal elementary schools a flexible student care (Schulkindbetreuung) until 5 pm maximum for school days and for most of the vacation weeks. Altogether more than 80 per cent of pupils attending elementary are looked after.

Heidelberg invests. A good learning environment is important for successful learning. For a comprehensive and contemporary education of young people Heidelberg invests heavily in renovations and modernisations of the schools, running of the schools, the school social work as well as municipal school programms and further voluntary municipal services.

More Information

School districts
Information on School Enrollment 
multilingual flyer "Intercultural Parent Tutors" in cooperation with the parent foundation (Elternstiftung) for download (1.123 MB)
Educational pathways in Baden-Württemberg (2.398 MB)