German essay - Differences Between the Education System in England and Germany..help!

So what are the main differences between the English and German education systems? And the advantages and disadvantages of both?

I have no idea where to start on this essay so any help at all would be much appreciated! And it's in for Monday.
Also does anyone know anything about tuition fees in Germany?

Reply 1

-xsarahx-

Ok, i take it you know the english school system so i'm not exactly gonna tell you the differences! lol...just a run down of the german school system:

Kindergarten = 0-6 years old, is optional.
Grundschule = 6-10/11 years old, bascially pretty much like our primary school, expect they start later, at the end the teacher and parents discuss the pupil, and decided whether to send them to one of four schools, these are:

Gymnasium: academic school
Gesamptschule: comprehemsive
Hauptschule: non-academic
Realschule: non-academic

I dont think there are that many gesamptschule....probably more in the old east germany, i'm not sure...

but anyway the Gynmasium you go to from the age of 11-18...they are for academic pupils that did well in primary school (which is obv a negative thing...i was always described as 'v. below average' in primary school then had like a spurt in secondry school...so i cant really see how you can judge a childs capability at the age of 11.) erm, you do subjects then i think you narrow it down to a few specialised subjects for their 'abitur' (equivilant to a-level) but they still do a lot more subjects then the English, they have specialised subjects and then non-specialised subjects, there are german words for them i cant remember right now. At the end of the 'abitur' most pupils go on to Uni...boys still have to do that 1 year in the military thingy (i think...)

Realschule and Hauptschule...1 is below the other i cant remember which (lol it was a long time since i did my oral) usually more work-based, apperticeship kinda learning...usually pupils dont go to Uni but they can do, you leave the school at 15 with either a 'realschule' or 'hauptschule' abschluss.

They dont have exams like we do, they are tested a lot regulary....and the marks go from 1 (extremely good) to 6 (very poor) for the abitur your grades get averaged....from 1.1 - 6.6.

The school day is very different, they start earlier then us and finish about 1 or 2 ish to do 'arbeitsgemeinschaften' which are after-school acitivies and clubs. But they dont have school sports teams, competitive sport is usually done outside of school.

You might want to look at the PISA 2000 study - very interesting, germany did badly...

There is also a berufschule, i think it is a business school, you might want to research that as well...

Tutition fees in Germany - i dont think they exist, i thought uni was free?? I'm not sure i didn't really include university in my oral. I know people stay at uni for AGES tho, like you get 30-year-olds studying sometimes.

Hope this helps! If you just search it on google or google.de there is so much info out there.

Reply 2

Cirsium

Ummm that was pretty comprehensive but a couple of things:

Kindergartens aren't state run - pretty much all kids go from 2/3 upwards but you have to pay for them

Real is semi aca / semi voc + Haupt is almost entirely vocational. You can leave the Hauptschule @ 15 and Real @ 16. And their version of 6th form (if u didn't go to the Gymi but want to carry on later) is called the Oberstufe (i think!!!!!!!!) Ummmm yeah that's as much as i can think of that sarah didn't cover - other than curriculum stuff...