Why does the German school system not work effectively?

The German school system is one of the most ineffective ones internationally, and this has been proven by studies like the international PISA study. It shows that there is far too much illiteracy and key qualifications like calculating, reading, writing and communicating are not taught sufficiently and effectively. Especially those kids who have a problematic social and migration background have lesser chances than Germans with a positive social background.

The German school system is different in every federal state like Brandenburg, Bavaria etc. Some states start early education in a pre-school, and some start compulsory schooling at the age of five. Selection starts after the third school year, and kids pass on to different school types in the so-called three-fold school system. There is a general secondary school, which is the lowest, and from where on kids don´t have the slightest chance for a vocational training, far from being able to continuing school to get a higher qualification. Actually, they are lucky to get a school leaving qualification, at all. So the state job agency has to try and further qualify them in vocational education. By that time, however, the youngsters are that demotivated that it is hard to get them to learning anything at all.

The second type of school is a sort of a Secondary Modern School or High School, and it leads to a higher general school leaving qualification. Chances are much better at that stage to pass on to a vocational training.

The third type of school is the Gymnasium (College or former Grammar School). This qualification entitles to pass on to a university or to a qualified vocational training. All parents try to get their kids to this type of school.

Brandenburg has just abolished the threefold school system and replaced it with a general high school (Oberschule), which leads to one general school qualification, but this doesn´t entitle to passing on to a college or university.

Vocational education is another problem. Normally, youngsters have to apply for a training with a training company in one of the certified professions. The companies are obliged to send the trainees to vocational schools for theoretical training and general schooling for one or two weeks in a row. This means, vocational school teachers sometimes don´t see some trainees for five or six weeks. So there is hardly any continuous educational work which can be achieved.

However, there are those who couldn´t find a training company because of their qualifications. Those trainees are trained by vocational schools and in private institutes which are responsible for the practical training.

A lot of schools are poorly equipped with technology, and Internet work still is something like an award for well-behaved classes instead of being a tool of 21st century education. The lesser the qualifications of the students the fewer the chance of having access to the Internet at home, at all. In my secreterial staff classes, barely half of the trainees have private access to the internet.

The result is that there is a large gap between well-qualified and unqualified youngsters in Germany. Early selection leads to leaving many youngsters not sufficienty qualified. And the difference between those who can make use of the benefits of online communication and those suffer the disadvantages of not being able to use 21st century communication devices is constantly increasing. This is partly due to the fact that even people who have a regular job are paid too few money to be able to afford the Internet, far from those who are out of work for different reasons.

In fact, Germany is qualifying those who in the end leave Germany for better professional chances in other European states or countries overseas.

There is only one solution to this crisis in the German educational system. Stop selecting kids at an early stage of their educational career or giving up selection, at all. All kids and youngsters have to be assisted and fostered at an early stage, instead. Especially higher qualified schools have to introduce self-directed learning and 21st century learning tools. Education authorities have to promote qualified further education of the teaching staff, and teaching conditions have to be improved in the way that effective learning can take place.

Unfortunately, I don´t have much hope that anything will change to the better for as long as I will take responsibilty in education. Education and learning is still depending too much on circumstance, on the willingness of individual teachers and on the qualifications of the teaching staff as a whole.

No support for socially handicapped kids?

An intelligence test shows that she is normally intelligent, and deficiencies do not entitle Sue to school support to make up for the social problems she has inherited from her originating family.

She has a maths deficiency, but her every day knowledge ist phenomenal. (We assign this to our constant attempts to explain the world to our kids ;-)) ) She doesn´t show abnormal behaviour, she tries her best to come up to expectations. That´s good news.

But, on the other hand, she keeps losing sports gear, her rain coat has disappeared miracously into a big black hole, and she isn´t able to note down homework tasks.

It seems there are no measures to support her in her desperate attempts to get things straight - except the good will of her teachers who have to care for 28 other kids and ourselves.

So we still keep on working on that and we are trying not to give up.

German students more conservative than their teaching staff?

When I entered the airport handling staff fist year training class for the first time, I felt like being part of a bad dream. They had arranged tables and chairs neatly aligned to the blackboard. What was that supposed to mean?

There can only be one explanation for this sort of strange behaviour. First, they don´t want to get in contact with each other, not wishing to look into each other´s faces. Second, they expect from the teacher to trickle bits of his precious information straight into the receptive ears of his students, and give orders of what to do next. Third, they are unwilling to communicate with each other.

This all is totally unfit for language teaching. Language teaching means communication, and not just reception. It also gives me an idea of how secondary schools in Germany seem to go about teaching.Universities are in no way different.

It is hard to react to this form of open refusal of self-directive learning. If I order them to sit in the form of a U, or in groups, they might refuse any sort of learning. If I leave it as it is, they might be able to influence my teaching style and methods in a way that I can´t support. I am not a supermarket of knowledge where students can shop around and take or leave whatever he wants.

Maybe I´ll just order them to work in pairs or groups and hope that they will dissolve their inflexibe seating scheme by themselves.

Crisis in education or just another symptom?

How would you deal with this situation?

You have spent a nice weekend at some relatives some hundred miles away, the children enjoyed it, and everything seems to be normal. Then, your sister phones you up to tell you that the sweets you have in stock have vanished over the weekend, or a DVD is missing. You start reconstructing the situation and find out that only your children can have taken them. At the best, your sister is sad and distressed, maybe even angry with you. This could lead to serious trouble, if it happened again.

As a matter of fact, this can always happen to you if your foster children are traumatised. They might want to make sure that there is always something to eat at hand, or they don´t even remember of taking away things.

Professional advice tells you that you have to put up with it and try to talk to your kids, as much as possible. you will find out that penalties don´t work to alter the situation. And you need very understanding friends and relatives. Sometimes even psycho-theraueutical measures don´t work.

It is a long way, and the worst case would be to abandon your foster children. This is every-day life.

What the youth welfare office doesn´t know about

During the last support plan meeting, the so-called "specialists" and officials told us it was necessary to claim support from the elementary school Sue is attending for social-emotional deficiencies. Sounded clever and a good move to make.

Last Tuesday, I had a talk with the special adivisor on educational and learning problems. The result was that a support is only granted after a diagnosis and only in cases of severe misbehaviour like violence in the classroom or a pupil not being able to follow lessons and cooperate. All of this does not apply to Sue, as she only cannot concentrate and is often absent-minded because of her trauma. The idea of relocating her to a special school for learning deficiencies wouldn´t do, as well. So we can only try to support her the best we can and hope for understanding teachers.

Once again, the youth welfare office was wrong, just trying to show off ceverness. Why can´t they act a bit more professional?