About my school

In Germany school lasts at least 9 years, maximum 13 years.The school-system differs from state to state, anyway, the system is about to change in some ways  so some information may be a bit old or wrong.

The first school you go to is called Grundschule, I started at the age of six, I’d say most people started with seven, but the starting age is on the decrease. In my state, Niedersachsen, the Grundschule used to last four years, after these four years most people went to the OS (Orientierungsstufe), which lasted two years.

In most other states there has never been an OS, pupils have been split up after the Grundschule. From next year on Niedersachsen will use this system too, because of this we have to make room for six other classes. As my school is an old building, my town has no money for an extension of the building (which wouldn’t be possible anyway because it’s in the middle of the town) and the public administration didn’t allow us to use the housekeepers building, we do not have this room, which means the new classes have to stay wherever, which again means total chaos.

There are some other alternative schools. I’m not going to tell about them here.

Pupils are being split up after the OS, with sufficient grades you are able to go to the Gymnasium. The gymnasium lasts seven years, till the tenth grade you have normal classes, in eleventh grade it’s a mixture between classes and courses, 12^th and 13^th grade are only courses, which means you are able to, more or less, fully choose what you want to do (and have to take in the Abitur, which comes in 13^th grade, and will be in 12^th grade in a few years). You are able to do an exchange year during the eleventh grade, without having to repeat the class afterwards.

After the Gymnasium, men have to go the army or do social work (which is far more popular). You are able to skip this if you have a place where you can start to study directly after school.

Other possibilites after going to the OS are the Realschule and Hauptschule, Realschule lasts ten years, if your grades are good enough you may go to the Gymnasium afterwards, otherwise you can go to other schools or start an apprenticeship. The Hauptschule lasts nine years, most people start an apprenticeship after these nine years, provided that they find an apprenticeship place, which is a problem at the moment. Again, with enough good grades you may go to the Realschule (and from there on to the Gymnasium, which is hard, but I know people who did it).

The German grading system starts at 1, which is the best, and ends at 6. If anyone is able to tell me why you in Finland start at 4, go ahead. Subjects are divided into main (German, first and second language (which are English and French/Latin most of the time) and maths) and minor (science, P.E., third language (Spanish in my case), religion, etc.) subjects.

We only have two periods per year, which means you have the same timetable for nearly a half year. At the end of the first period you get a report card, if your grades are pretty bad, you receive a warning. At the end of the second period you get your final report card, if you get more than one 5 or you get a 6 in one or more subjects, you have to do the whole year again!

If one gets a 5 in maths and chemistry and a 3 (or better, of course) in French and P.E., he does not have to repeat the year, because the grades are balanced. You are only able to balance main subjects with main subjects and minor’s with minor’s. The first period’s grades have a pretty small effect on the final report card, so you may sleep the first period and work the second, which seems to work, sometimes.

In Finland your grades mainly base on your tests. In Germany, what you say in the lessons counts more than what you write, it’s something like 60% verbally and 40% written, but differs from subject to subject and teacher to teacher.

So if someone is e.g. good in discussing and talking French generally but bad in grammar or is just nervous while writing tests he may still get a reasonable grade. Same thing goes for shy people who don’t like to talk in class but write good tests. If a teacher recognises someone whose written-test grades are much better than his verbal-grades for example, he may give him a good grade anyway.

The PISA-Study bestowed Finland places in the top 5 of all three categories.  Germany got place 20 in maths and science, place 21 in reading. 24 per cent of the 15-year-old Germans only reached primary school level in mathematics, 10 per cent did not reach the first of five stages in reading.

Because of this, the school-system is supposed to be about to change, politicians are looking to Finland and other countries and try to figure how to enhance the school-system, but in my opinion they are going to do it the wrong way.

You might want to take a look at my teachers: http://www.herbartgymnasium.de/beteiligte/lehrer/index.html Young teachers are rather rare. One thing I noticed here is that some pupils are getting extra lessons if they have problems in a subject. In my school, you are more or less on your own in most subjects. My French teacher once said something like “I can’t care about the weak students because some pupils want to get into the major course later”.

The Lukio of Kauhajoki is definitely better equipped than my school, we only have one computer-room which you are not allowed to use on your own. (Well, you were actually, but because some students installed stuff on the computers, the teachers decided to shut it down instead of using a reasonable operating system.) The computers are mainly old, because the state has no money, but we got some new ones and the equipment is being renewed step by step.

I could go on with complaining about my school but no one really cares, so I guess.

Arif Richter