|
Germany Elementary and Primary Education
The first level of education is called elementary education and consists of kindergarten for children ages three to five (see fig. 9). Attendance is voluntary. In the first half of the 1990s, about 80 percent of children were in kindergarten. Beginning
in 1996, all children will be guaranteed a place in kindergarten. Because the former GDR had maintained an extensive kindergarten system, the new Länder
had enough kindergarten places to meet this requirement. In contrast, in the early 1990s the old Länder
had only enough places to accommodate about 75 percent of children in the relevant age-group.
The second level of education is called primary education and consists of the Grundschule
(basic school). Children between the ages of six and ten attend the Grundschule
from grades one through four. Children are evaluated in the fourth grade and tracked according to their academic records, teacher evaluations, and parent-teacher discussions. The three tracks lead to different secondary schools and play a significant rol
e in determining a child's subsequent educational options.
Junior Secondary Education
Secondary education, the third level of education, is divided into two levels: junior secondary education (also called intermediate secondary education) and senior secondary education. Upon completion of the Grundschule
, students between the ages of ten and sixteen attend one of the following types of secondary schools: the Hauptschule
, the Realschule
, the Gymnasium
, the Gesamtschule
, or the Sonderschule
(for children with special educational needs). Students who complete this level of education receive an intermediate school certificate. Adults who attend two years of classes in evening schools can also earn these intermediate school certificates, which
permit further study.
Junior secondary education starts with two years (grades five and six) of orientation courses during which students explore a variety of educational career paths open to them. The courses are designed to provide more time for the student and parents to
decide upon appropriate subsequent education.
The Hauptschule
, often called a short-course secondary school in English, lasts five or six years and consists of grades five to nine or five to ten depending on the Land
. Some Länder
require a compulsory tenth year or offer a two-year orientation program. About one-third of students completing primary school continue in the Hauptschule
. The curriculum stresses preparation for a vocation as well as mathematics, history, geography, German, and one foreign language. After receiving their diploma, graduates either become apprentices in shops or factories while taking compulsory part-time c
ourses or attend some form of full-time vocational school until the age of eighteen.
Another one-third of primary school graduates attend the Realschule
, sometimes called the intermediate school. These schools include grades five through ten. Students seeking access to middle levels of government, industry, and business attend the Realschule
. The curriculum is the same as that of the Hauptschule
, but students take an additional foreign language, shorthand, wordprocessing, and bookkeeping, and they learn some computer skills. Graduation from the Realschule
enables students to enter a Fachoberschule
(a higher technical school) or a Fachgymnasium
(a specialized high school or grammar school) for the next stage of secondary education. A special program makes it possible for a few students to transfer into the Gymnasium
, but this is exceptional.
The Gymnasium
, sometimes called high school or grammar school in English, begins upon completion of the Grundschule
or the orientation grades and includes grades five through thirteen. The number of students attending the Gymnasium
has increased dramatically in recent decades; by the mid-1990s, about one-third of all primary school graduates completed a course of study at the Gymnasium
, which gives them the right to study at the university level. In the 1990s, the Gymnasium
continued to be the primary educational route into the universities, although other routes have been created.
The Gesamtschule
originated in the late 1960s to provide a broader range of educational opportunities for students than the traditional Gymnasium
. The Gesamtschule
has an all-inclusive curriculum for students ages ten to eighteen and a good deal of freedom to choose coursework. Some schools of this type have been established as all-day schools, unlike the Gymnasium
, which is a part-day school with extensive homework assignments. The popularity of the Gesamtschule
has been mixed. It has been resisted in more conservative areas, especially in Bavaria, where only one such school had been established by the beginning of the 1990s. A few more were established in Bavaria in the next few years; their presence is margina
l when compared with the Gymnasium
, of which there were 395 in 1994. Even North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous Land
and an outspoken supporter of the Gesamtschule
, had only 181, compared with 623 of the traditional Gymasium
.
Data as of August 1995
|
