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The Week in Germany: Culture

October 27, 2006

Pilot Program for a Unified School in Berlin Unleashes Old Debate

Berlin’s governing parties have agreed to an experimental school program that is stoking the fires of a debate about Germany’s multi-tiered school system that reaches as far back as the mid-nineteenth century. The coalition of the center-left SPD and left-wing PDS parties that governs Germany’s capital agreed this week to fund a school that would educate college-bound students together with their peers on other tracks until the 10th grade.

Up to 29 million euros ($37 million) will be earmarked for schools that take on the task of preparing students for college as well as other careers. After the 10th grade, students can choose to spend two additional years to complete the university entrance exam known as the “Abitur.”

An ongoing debate: This FDP campaign poster from 2005 says "No to Unified Schools."

De Facto Class Segregation?

While the specifics vary from state to state, nearly all German students must currently choose between the academically oriented “Gymnasium” and a variety of other schools that focus more on vocational training once they finish grade school. The dual system is a legacy of the Prussian education system that was reinforced when the industrial revolution created a demand for a small class of well-educated managers and a larger class of educated tradesmen.

Germany’s disappointing performance on the international PISA studies in 2000 and 2003, in which Germany’s students lagged behind the middle of the pack on a test of reading, writing, arithmetic, and science abilities, reignited an old debate about the dual system, however. The study’s finding that social and economic background had a stronger correlation with academic performance in Germany than most of the other participating countries gave particular cause for alarm.

This finding seemed to affirm critics claims that the dual system results in segregation by social class de facto. Further complicating the issue is the fact that children from immigrant backgrounds overwhelmingly attend vocational schools. According to the Federal Statistics Office, about 19 percent of Hauptschule attendees came from immigrant families in 2006, compared to only about 4 percent of university-bound “Gymnasium” Students. In 2005 in Berlin, a Hauptschule in Kreuzberg made headlines in 2005 because only 5 of 339 students were German.

Those who want to preserve the dual system say that unified schools will take resources away from top-performing students. Eric Schweitzer, president of the German Chamber of Commerce and industry, told the Berliner Morgenpost that schools must support both weaker students and gifted students. He also predicts economic disadvantages for Berlin, “If they suspect that unified schools will be introduced, top managers from other states and from abroad will definitely think twice about moving to Berlin with their families.”

The latest in a long line of experiments

The dual system has survived in Germany despite repeated attempts by reformers to introduce unified schools. After World War II, the government of occupied Berlin acquiesced to American and Soviet pressure to introduce unified schools, but West Berlin quickly returned to the dual system after the city’s administration was divided amidst a flurry of negative press and resistance. Although the unified school survived in East Germany, where it better fit socialist ideology, the East German states quickly adopted the dual system following reunification.

In the 1970’s, the SPD government also tried to established a unified school system but failed when middle class parents boycotted the schools. The authors of a recent study commissioned by the Federal Education Ministry have warned against this danger: “If people do not recognize the quality of unified schools, then they could lead to a flight of the middle and upper classes into private ‘Gymnasiums’”, said Amelie Mummendrey of the Academic Center of Berlin.

Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who pledged during his recent campaign for reelection that he would not force unified schools on Berlin, has said he will not allow the unified school project to lead to a “culture war against the ‘Gymnasiums’”.

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