May 02, 2004

England and Germany: schooling systems in comparison

Some while ago I spoke with a good friend who is visiting an english school for one year.

Both of us used to complain a lot about the german school system that made us learn the same things again and again (even some days ago i had an argument with my teacher because we were writing exactly the same stuff in our excercise books as last year). He told me that he was learning much faster in England even if you count the handicap of the language. Another thing we argued a lot about with our teachers was that we only have a few chances to get active in form of workshops or by organizing events at our school in Germany. My friend told me that he is much happier in his english school. The pupils from his grade had the opportunity to organize a theatre play in the city's theatre, where he had to run the soundcheck. He also showed me some good short films which he made with a group of other pupils (something that would me interest a lot) who visited the school for one year as well. But the best thing that happened to him was that he got the offer to fly to the Olympic Games for his school, because he speaks four languages (german, english, russian and french). One of his tasks at the Olympic Games would be to interview V.I.P's in order to write an report about the games.

Of course this example is a bit extreme but my school here in Germany isn't even able to organize school events by themself rather than let the pupils organize them! It would be no problem to have something like a video workshop once a week. I even found out that our school would be able to rent a camera from an institution that had been founded for this reason.

Politicians discuss the German schooling system a lot at the moment, but i think that we are stilling working in the wrong direction. Politicians are trying to make primary schools to teach english in first grade and let high schools give exams earlier to pupils instead of teaching them more. In my opinion, the worst aspect in this discussion is that pupils -like me- who critizise the system and mention that we dont have enough possibilties at german schools are the minority. This is also shown by studies that made the german schooling system turn out to be completely useless. I hope that politicians will manage to solve these problems although when i wont have to cope with this anymore (I am now in grade 11 and I am going to make my exams in grade 13).

Posted by Sebastian at May 2, 2004 09:59 PM
Comments

Well, that's the problem with Swiss Unis: lots of books and theories, tons of selective exams but little practice. The SUPSI addresses this problem, though failing in other fields.

Posted by: Michele Bugliaro at May 16, 2004 05:08 PM

Hi Sebastian,

when I settled here in the UK back in 1997 I could have never imagined that my kids would attend a british school. I could still remember what most of my teachers said about the british schooling system - and it was not very good. Underfunded, underresourced, violence & crime. And there were the uniforms, of course.... On the other hand, there was lots of prise for the german system and I must admit, I'm still a fan of (almost) free education with equality for everyone. Because that's what you won't get here in the UK - good education (or at least a guarantee for it) can only be provided by schools that charge for their services. It's a pity, but it's true.

However, as the PISA study has revealed, there seems to be a big misconception with regards what the Germans *thought* their schooling system is like and what it *actually* is. fact is now, the british system is way better and leads its pupils not only better educated but also younger into job life or further education.

One of many oberservations I made in my final year at Uni here was that british students are far more "hands on" - they do stuff here and take initiative, you know. In Germany there always seemed to me far too much theory and talk. So the first thing I had to get used to were lots of group works meetings, seminars and case studies. Students were supposed to work together far more often than back home (to be honest, I can't recall ever having to work together with someone for a course work or a homework).

All in all, I'm a bit more relieved now that our daughter Milly will most likely make her start in a british school.

Posted by: Michael at May 2, 2004 11:51 PM