A public task needs organisation and funding.
A school needs premises, equipment and operating rules. A road needs planning, construction and maintenance. The exam answer summarises this public responsibility with the verb “build”.
This does not mean that one federal agency personally constructs every school and road. Germany has different types of roads and different responsible levels. Education is primarily a state responsibility, with municipalities also involved locally.
The other three answers
The other answers do not describe a general public provision task of this kind.
It sells food and clothing.
Businesses ordinarily sell food and clothing. The state provides a framework, but is not the population’s general retailer.
It provides all residents with free newspapers.
There is no general state responsibility to deliver free newspapers to everyone. Press freedom differs from universal free newspaper provision.
It produces cars and buses.
Businesses ordinarily manufacture cars and buses. Public procurement or transport organisation does not make manufacturing the basic responsibility sought here.
Public responsibility can involve private delivery.
Private firms can work on public construction projects. Private schools also exist. Neither changes the underlying public responsibility for infrastructure and the school system.
The question does not ask who owns every individual building. It asks which activity represents a typical public responsibility.
Articles 7 and 90 · Basic Law ↗Roads connect places; schools enable education.
Both represent infrastructure requiring public organisation.
Three words for this question
- die Infrastrukturinfrastructure
- Basic facilities such as transport routes and public buildings.
- die Zuständigkeitresponsibility
- Allocation of a task to a particular authority.
- der Auftraggebercommissioning body
- The body that commissions work.