On 4 December 2003 the conference of the education ministers of the German states adopted the first national education standards. They covered German, mathematics and the first foreign language, English or French, for the intermediate school certificate. The standards name the competences and the knowledge that pupils are to have. They became binding from the school year 2004/2005.
The Bavarian ministry gave the reason. The standards were a reaction to the modest results of German pupils in PISA 2000.