The German School System

German Kindergarten

• It's sometimes hard to find a place for your kid.

• Parents often apply for a kindergarten as soon as their children are born.

• Children usually attend kindergarten from age 3 to 6.

Grundschule (elementary school)

• Children start at the age of 6

• Grades 1-4• One teacher teaches

most subjects

• Reading and writing

• Maths

• Social standards and values

• Music

• Physical education

• Art

• HSU (Heimat und Sachunterricht) which combines biology, history, and geography.

• Religious education (must be offered at all state schools granted in the Constitution)

Time to choose

• When the pupils are about 10 years old (in year 4), teachers and parents choose between 3 options (tri-partite system):

• Hauptschule/ Mittelschule (secondary school)

• Realschule (secondary modern school)

• Gymnasium (grammar school)

Hauptschule/ Mittelschule

• lowest-achieving students

• more slowly paced and more basic instruction than at the Realschule and Gymnasium.

• additional subjects at the Hauptschule have a vocational orientation.

• grades 5 - 9

• about 25 percent of German students attend the Hauptschule.

Realschule

• The Realschule provides students with an education which combines both theoretical and practical elements (grades 5 – 10)

• Subjects like bookkeeping, technical drawing etc.

• About 24 percent of German students attend the Realschule,

Gymnasium• The Gymnasium provides students with a liberal education and is supposed to

enable them to study at university.

• About 30 percent of German students are enrolled in the Gymnasium.

• Students may enroll in the Gymnasium at the lower secondary level (5th grade) or may transfer to the Gymnasium after completing the Realschule (11th grade).

• The final 2 or 3 years of Gymnasium (grades 11-12 or 11-13) are called the Oberstufe (upper level).

• Students who successfully complete their studies at a Gymnasium get their final degree, the „Abitur“.

The grading scale used throughout the German education system ranges from 1—6. (A "6" is the equivalent of a failing grade). Teachers are permitted to add a plus or minus in parentheses to provide further differentiation.

1 = very good 2 = good 3 = satisfactory 4 = adequate 5 = poor 6 = very poor

Grading and Examinations

Criticism of the German tripartite system :

• Separation of children along class lines at a very early age, compared to other states/ countries

• Only the Gymnasium is a university-preparatory school, so critics argue essentially a decision is made as early as the fourth grade about whether a child will be allowed to attend college.

Thanks for your attention!