The following article is available on the AFT World Wide Web pages,
http://www.aft.org
Reposted with permission of the American Federation of Teachers.
                  A Profile of Germany's Education System
                          College-Bound Students
In Germany, as in the United States, local control of education is an
important tradition. Schooling is primarily the responsibility of each of
the 16 German states, or Lander, with the national government playing a
coordinating role. There is, however, a certain degree of uniformity across
the Lander, with common policies achieved by consensus in the Standing
Committee of the Ministers of Education (Kultusministerkonferenz), a body
composed of the education ministers from each of the Lander.
Compulsory schooling usually lasts 9 or 10 years in Germany, beginning at
age six. Children attend grundschule, or primary school, for four years
(six years in two Lander), after which they move into one of three
secondary tracks: 1) the hauptschule, the most basic level, lasting through
the 9th year of schooling and preparing students to enter employment and
receive additional training; 2) the realschule, a more advanced level that
extends through the 10th year of schooling and prepares students primarily
for middle-level, non-professional careers (while also allowing access to
upper secondary education and university entrance); and 3) the gymnasium,
the most academically rigorous secondary school path aimed at those
students interested in attending a university. In grades 5-10 of the
gymnasium, students take compulsory classes in a wide range of subjects.
(In some Lander, students attend comprehensive schools from grades 5-10,
rather than this three-tiered system.) At the end of the 10th grade,
students may qualify for the upper level gymnasium, the gymnasiale
oberstufe, covering grades 11-13. Additionally, a substantial number of
students after grade 10 of the gymnasium continue their education until age
18 by combining academic work with full- or part-time on-the-job
apprenticeships.
Usually, students in Germany are tracked or grouped by ability after the
fourth year of schooling (age ten). Exactly which secondary school path
students take is determined by their performance in the grundschule.
Recommendations are made by teachers (and other school personnel), and
final decisions are made in consultation with parents, who ultimately
decide. In 1990-91, approximately 33 percent of German students were in
hauptschule, 28 percent in realschule, 31 percent in gymnasium and eight
percent in comprehensive schools.
Grade level retention does occur in secondary schools, but students in the
realschule and gymnasium are not allowed to be held back more than twice.
If such a situation arises, the student is transferred to a track below
(i.e., from gymnasium to realschule or from realschule to hauptschule).
Access to an upper track school from one below is possible, but not very
common. The most common upward move is students who have completed the
realschule moving into the upper level gymnasium to prepare for university
study. The transfer figures vary between Lander from 2 to 16 percent of
students.
Standards for University Entrance: the Abitur
While there is no single set of national standards in Germany, there is a
process for college qualification and an earned certificate called the
Abitur, whose structure and characteristics are quite consistent across the
Lander.
During the 11th through 13th years of gymnasium (the upper level), students
receive compulsory instruction in core subject areas with elective course
options available as well. Each subject is taught at both a basic and an
advanced level, the latter involving more rigorous content and more time
for instruction. Students begin the process of working toward the Abitur at
the beginning of the 12th year. Over those next two years, students must
take a total of 28 courses, 22 at the basic level and six at the advanced
level. They must also choose four subjects in which they will eventually
take the Abitur exam. At least one subject must be chosen from each of the
following three fields of knowledge: 1) language, literature and the arts;
2) social sciences; and 3) mathematics, sciences and technology. And at
least two of the subjects chosen must be taken at the advanced course
level.
Students usually take the Abitur exam at the end of their final gymnasium
year. Three exams are written, and the fourth is performed orally. Exams in
some subjects, such as art and music, may involve performance
demonstrations. When a discrepancy exists between a student's course grades
and exam scores, additional oral exams can be given.
The Abitur certificate is awarded based on a combination of students'
grades over their final two years of coursework and their scores on the
exams. Out of 840 total possible points, 540 are reflective of coursework
(330 from the 22 basic courses, 210 from the six advanced), 300 of the
exams. A total score of 280 is considered passing.
In 1991, 37 percent of the age cohort took their Abitur. More than 95
percent of these candidates passed. Typically, 85 percent of those who pass
enroll in a university within two years (the remaining 15 percent are
expected to enroll within a few more years).
At one time, passing the Abitur was enough to guarantee everyone a place in
a university studying the subjects of his or her choice. Due in part to an
increasing number of gymnasia, however, the number of students gaining an
Abitur in Germany has increased beyond the capacity of the university
system (from 1960 to 1986 the figure grew from 57,000 to 300,000). A
passing mark on the Abitur is still required for university entrance, but
it no longer guarantees students a choice of disciplines. Scores on the
Abitur are now very important, and entrance into the more popular
disciplines, such as medicine, is restricted by quota and often requires
additional testing and interviews. In many cases, lengthy waiting lists
exist.
How Is the Abitur Exam Developed and Graded?
The specific content of the Abitur exams and the syllabi for the courses
leading up to the exams are determined by each individual Land. The
education ministries in each of the Lander are responsible for defining the
course content for each subject. But they must remain within a set of
guidelines developed at the national level by the Kultusministerkonferenz,
which determines issues such as eligibility to receive the Abitur and the
number and distribution of subjects in which students must be examined.
Though curricular differences exist across Lander, the national guidelines
effectively maintain a high degree of uniformity.
In a great majority of Lander, teachers are responsible for developing the
Abitur exams that will be given to their students. It is an accepted,
indeed welcomed, responsibility of the job. At the beginning of each school
year, teachers create a list of possible exam questions relating to their
particular subjects and send them together as a school to the state
education ministry (or to a regional "school inspectorate" in the larger
Lander). Each question is evaluated based on a variety of criteria and
either approved or returned to the teacher for improvement.
Teachers give the exams to their students, and they are also responsible
for grading them in most Lander. In fact, part of their pre-service
training deals with creating and grading Abitur exams. Most Lander have a
system in place for cross-checking teacher grading, but the system clearly^
requires a significant amount of trust to be vested in teachers.
In at least six Lander, the Abitur exams are created and graded at the
state ministry level. Students in each of these Lander take the exact same
exam in each subject. The exam reproduced in this volume is from
Baden-W+rttemberg, one of these six Lander.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* A mind is a terrible thing to lose.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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