Unit school

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The German standard school goes back historically, among other things, to the efforts of the General German Teachers' Association , which developed important basic features of a future school system as early as the revolution of 1848/49 . At the beginning of the Weimar Republic, a school reform arose in Saxony and Thuringia, which can be paraphrased using the terms unit school, secular school, work school and self-governing school (cf. Greil school reform ). However, the full implementation of this concept was prevented in 1923.

The three-tier school system in Germany contrasts with a single school or comprehensive school in most of the member states of the European Union in the primary and lower secondary level . Vocational training in Germany takes place predominantly in the dual system, while the majority of EU countries have full-time vocational schools or organize training exclusively in companies.

Humanistic unified school

Antonio Gramsci (January 22, 1891 - April 27, 1937), 1921 co-founder of the Communist Party of Italy (PCdI), developed a school concept whose pedagogical principles "see the contrast between authoritative tendencies in education and the liberal, child-like reform pedagogical paradigms of contemporary international pedagogical Overcome the reform scene ". At that time, reform pedagogy in Italy was part of the fascist Ministry of Education. For this reason Gramsci turned to reform pedagogical models in other European countries and the USA. Gramsci's considerations are based on a humanistic approach, according to which a general education should serve a personality development corresponding to social realities. On the other hand, he rejected an "unnatural specialization". This brings Gramsci very close to Wilhelm von Humboldt's ideal of education . He designed a concept of the "creative socialist-humanist" unified school. He justifies his criticism of the structured school system with the fact that it would cement social inequalities by creating a separate school type for each social class. He even calls for the division into general and vocational schools to be abolished. In the integrated school, the students in all 10 grades should stay connected and learn collectively. In this way he builds on the institutions of kindergarten education. Gramsci saw the most difficult problem in the transition from high school to academic or vocational training.

Structure of the GDR school system

In the education system of the GDR , the idea of ​​a single school was implemented according to the specifications of the Allies, but with a Soviet character. In 1946 the Soviet occupying power introduced the eight-grade uniform school in the law on the democratization of German schools . The German Administration for Popular Education and, after the founding of the GDR in 1949, the Ministry for Popular Education ensured uniform curricula based on Marxism-Leninism . The establishment of the socialist school was completed in 1959 and 1965 by the law on the unified socialist education system with a formally ten-class unified school.

The general education polytechnic high school for all children up to the tenth grade was the standard school of the GDR. In practice, however, it ended with the eighth grade and went on to the preparatory classes for the extended high school. All children attended the Polytechnische Oberschule and for the most part stayed together in one group during this time. A large number of children achieved a qualification after 10 years of schooling on this educational path, which after 1990 was equated with the secondary school qualification. The extended secondary school for the 11th and 12th grades served as preparation for a degree. Abitur and apprenticeship led to professional activity without studying.

The teachers were aligned with a curriculum that had to be strictly adhered to and a close-knit social network was set up around the students. The curricula were important instruments of state influence on the goals and contents of school education and upbringing. Frontal teaching was preferred when conveying the content. Despite these strict regulations, teachers in the GDR had a wide range of opportunities to address individual students outside of class. Through working groups, Young Pioneers, Thälmann Pioneers and Free German Youth, the daily routine of the children outside the family was determined by classmates and the class teacher.

There were the following exceptions to the integrated school: Children with learning difficulties or disabled children attended auxiliary or special schools . Above a certain level of talent, especially gifted pupils were promoted to special schools outside the standard school system . The KJS ( children's and youth sports schools ) are best known here . The Abitur (higher maturity) was taken at the Extended Oberschule (9th to 12th grade, 11th to 12th grade towards the end of the GDR) by around 10% of a year. Another possibility for approx. 10% of the students to acquire university admission was vocational training with a high school diploma . In this course of study, the young person completed vocational training and the Abitur level within 3 years.

The official policy of social equality was enforced by giving preference to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This positive discrimination was a social corrective to performance selection. The schools with a differentiating effect, such as the extended high school, were barriers that were more easily overcome by children from better-off families.

School structure in the Federal Republic of Germany

The 8-year unified school was to be introduced in Germany by order of the Allies after the Second World War (Control Council Directive No. 54 of 1947). Nevertheless, with reference to the controversial discussion about talent, the multi-tier school system was retained. In the 1970s, a concept developed by Carl-Heinz Evers in Berlin for the comprehensive school had an impact on the entire federal territory, especially on the federal states ruled by social democrats. The multi-tier school system was to be replaced by comprehensive schools that came close to the concept of a single school. However, these comprehensive schools had to compete with the other schools. In addition, they were not unitary schools in that they were internally divided into course systems that internally reflected the multi-tier school system.

Real unified schools , such as the Bielefeld laboratory school , were only established in isolated cases . Since the 1980s, no new attempts have been made to implement single schools. Only with the international comparative education studies ( TIMSS , PISA , IGLU ), in which German students performed very poorly, but at the same time were exposed to extremely high social selection, is serious thought about the establishment of integrated schools ("schools for everyone").

From the multi-tier to the one-tier school system

In order to move from a multi-tier to a single-tier school system, educational researchers working with Klaus Hurrelmann are also promoting the two-tier model: Hauptschulen, Realschulen and Gesamtschulen are merged, given their own upper level and, like the grammar school, which will initially remain, offer all school qualifications. The problem with this is to make the two types of school really equivalent in the so-called "two-way model" (Hurrelmann). The existing comprehensive schools are often accused of poor performance, although the so-called "creaming effect" is overlooked. This means that the student body of a comprehensive school does not consist of equal proportions of strong and weak students, as intended, but largely of the weaker ones, since the parents of the stronger students prefer to send their children to high school. This makes it difficult to compare different school types. Another point of criticism is the assumed leveling of school performance to an average.

In some federal states there are currently concepts in the educational policy spectrum aimed at abolishing the multi-tier school system in the long term. The reasons for this new policy are given

  • the demographic change: many small communities can no longer afford different types of schools due to the decline in population, and a dramatic decline in student numbers is forecast for the period from 2010 if education policy continues as before.
  • the criticism of the early selection in the multi-tier system by international organizations such as the OECD , UNICEF , UNESCO , the European Commission and, most recently, the United Nations Human Rights Council with its educational study on Germany
  • the criticism of early selection by some business associations and think tanks
  • the “ voting with your feet ”: in 2006, 14,000 parents in North Rhine-Westphalia couldn't find a place for their children in comprehensive schools and in 2007 there were 16,000 parents who wanted to enroll their children in comprehensive schools and were unable to find a place; In Schleswig-Holstein more and more parents are sending their children to the private standard schools of the Danish minority.

history

Wilhelm von Humboldt advocated turning away from class-related special education towards general education. This also meant turning away from the class society. His model of the integrated and secularized unified school was based on the leading figure of the responsible citizen, the nation and the public. Humboldt said that "whoever is educated as a person is also well prepared for civil life and all trades". However, this concept met with resistance from conservative forces. It could not be enforced under the conditions of the monarchy and the class society. This may also be related to the fact that, according to the concept of the single school, the school career depends more on individual performance than on social origin. Subsequently, the Abitur was legally secured as an admission requirement for university studies. This resulted in the tripartite structure of general education.

At the beginning of the 20th century, school concepts emerged according to which the school should also include the task of educating. That meant an extension of the lessons to the afternoon lessons. In doing so, social, economic, political and technical relationships should be given greater weight. This basically corresponds to the concept of all-day schools. This is understood to mean schools "which offer a differentiated overall pedagogical program from morning to afternoon and include teaching, educational and socio-pedagogical activities and measures in their school concept".

In the interest of harmonizing the secondary school forms, school trials with comprehensive schools were decided in 1965 . Integrative comprehensive schools were introduced from 1969 to 1975.

The idea of ​​the integrated school can be found today in the concept of the community school, which enables various forms of longer learning together and overcomes the strict structure of the school system.

The German discussion about the unified school before 1920

The November Revolution of 1918 made it possible to reorganize the school system. In 1919 the Association of Decided School Reformers was founded, which among other things propagated the ideas and models of an "elastic" and "differentiated" unified school and in which the unified school was recognized as the best prerequisite for the renewal of the education system. Fritz Karsen (November 11, 1885 - August 25, 1951) was a key designer of this reform pedagogy . Together with the movement of new schools (comprehensive schools), he founded an experimental school in Berlin-Neukölln as a "society-related place of work and life for young people". This unified school had the characteristics of today's comprehensive schools.

Although the MSPD and the USPD still advocated the unified school , the Weimar school compromise of 1919 left little of it in the Weimar constitution : “The public school system is to be organized organically” (Art. 145). In addition to the representatives of the Federal Resolute School Reformers , Johannes Tews , who worked for the German Teachers' Association (DLV), which united large parts of the elementary school teachers, became the spokesman for the unified school. The SPD education politician Heinrich Schulz also campaigned for a public, free, secular, co-educational school with uniform curricula - and was thus unsuccessful in view of the coalition constraints.

Reich School Conference of 1920

In 1920, when the 4-year primary school was introduced for all pupils, there were discussions at the Reichsschulkonferenz about the problems of selection and individual support associated with the transition to secondary schools. The reform proposals ranged from a two- to three-year differentiated intermediate level for the orientation of the pupils up to a single school for the pupils of this age group. The concept of comprehensive schools can also be traced back to the Reichsschulkonferenz. With the votes of the SPD, USPD and KPD on February 24, 1922, the Thuringian State Parliament passed the Uniform School Act . Among other things, it regulated the gradual structure of the Thuringian School in the form of lower, middle and high schools. The reform is named after the Thuringian minister of education and teacher Max Richard Greil (SPD). The concept of the integrated school was used by the opponents of the comprehensive schools after the Second World War to discredit this type of school as communist.

The Berlin 8-year unified school

In 1948, the law on uniform schools was passed in Berlin with the votes of the SPD , SED and LDPD . It was valid for the entire city, but was replaced by the Berlin School after the division in the western part in 1951 . The Berlin unit school was largely conceived by reform pedagogues of the former "Bund resolved school reformers". The core elements of the integrated school were the 8-year-old elementary school, a high school with a practical and scientific branch, and an elastic integrated school with core and course instruction that goes back to Paul Oestreich . General co-education was also introduced. The strict and early separation of pupils into different branches of school was a main point of criticism of the conventional school system, which was to be counteracted with a long primary school period of 8 years. Since the law on the Berlin standard school owed its creation primarily to the cooperation of the SPD and SED, it was afflicted with the stigma of a socialist, Soviet-oriented school system at the latest in 1948/49, after the division of the city administration in West Berlin.

From conservative circles of the educated classes , the two Christian churches, especially the Catholic Church, and almost the entire West Berlin press was almost sparked a school fight, which briefly reached its peak before the elections in December 1950th After the Berlin elections on December 3, 1950, there was a CDU-FDP majority in the West Berlin Senate. A grand coalition of CDU and SPD was formed because it was believed that the city needed stability and a strong government in its precarious situation, but a majority for the single school no longer existed. The revision of the law on standardized schools was decided in December 1950 and brought a clear approximation to the school system of the western federal states. The Fritz Karsen School in Neukölln remained as a “school with a special educational character” despite the revision as a unified school. As a special feature, the 6-year elementary school in West Berlin remained. It could, however, be circumvented by some humanistic grammar schools with basic Latin classes (from 5th grade). In principle, this compromise still exists today.

In the 1960s, the SPD again had a majority in the Berlin House of Representatives and tried a second attempt with the comprehensive school in 1968 to achieve standardization in the education system.

advantages

From the point of view of the proponents, the integrated school is more socially fair, since the further education and career path is not already mapped out by the choice of school and there are special support effects for weaker students. This view was partially confirmed by the PISA studies.

The results of the PISA study , in which countries with a single school system such as Finland achieved top positions , show that the integrated school can also bring good results in the performance area. Although it must be assumed that the good results are not exclusively due to the unitary or comprehensive school system (all PISA losers also have unitary school systems, while some countries with structured systems also do very well), but also to targeted individual support , increased school autonomy, Course system and project work in contrast to frontal teaching, the result shows that good results can also be achieved with the unitary or comprehensive school system. If one takes a closer look at the school landscapes of the countries with unified school systems, however, it is noticeable that the term "comprehensive school" also includes very different schools. In Finland z. B. Each school has to design its own school profile according to local needs. Courses for gifted students are offered from grade 3. In this way schools are created that differ so much in terms of performance that some are comparable to German secondary schools, others more to German grammar schools. Due to the free choice of schools, the streams of pupils are sorted in such a way that significantly more homogeneous classes emerge than the term comprehensive school implies.

disadvantage

From the point of view of the opponents, a uniform school is a leveling off and the student cannot be promoted according to his talents. Higher performing students would be challenged and encouraged too little, whereas low performing students would be humiliated by the better performance of their classmates. How much overall education can suffer as a result of a single school model can be seen in the example of the USA . The students there are years behind German standards. However, it must also be taken into account that in the USA the quality of the individual schools fluctuates greatly due to municipal responsibility and funding and that there is also a division between private schools and public schools. The widespread use of private schools in the USA is mainly due to the poor public schools.

According to studies, the level has also dropped significantly in France, and the integrated school would not have increased the chances of migrants.

Opinions in the population

In a Forsa survey in 2004, 41 percent of the population said that students should stay together until year 9 or 10. 52 percent were in favor of the current school system. In 2007, fewer people were in favor of a single school. In a new Forsa survey, 89 percent of all respondents were in favor of maintaining the grammar schools, 68 percent were against abolishing the secondary school. In contrast to the official line of the parties, supporters of the SPD and the left advocated the maintenance of the grammar schools (SPD: 88 percent, left: 85 percent).

In Austria, 73 percent of those questioned (representative telephone survey in May 2006 among 500 people) are in favor of maintaining the current differentiated school system, 24 percent are in favor of the comprehensive school. This increased the approval of maintaining the current school system. In 2005, 54 percent were in favor of maintaining the differentiated school system, 43 percent were in favor of the comprehensive school at that time.

It is not known whether these opinions differed in the various social classes. Of the women surveyed, significantly more are in favor of a comprehensive school than of the men surveyed.

Web links

Wiktionary: Uniform school  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Notice of request with summary: School reform in Saxony 1918-1923. 1993, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on August 21, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Jürgen Gries u. a .: Education systems in Europe. ISIS Berlin eV, 2005, accessed on August 21, 2015 .
  3. ^ Armin Bernhard: Education and Upbringing in the Concept of Cultural Hegemony. Gramsci's criticism of the Italian school reform and international reform pedagogy and his model of a humanistic unified school. In: Tertium comparationis 5/1999. 1999, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Paul Wandel : The democratic unit school , review and outlook. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1947.
  5. ↑ a b The education and training system. In: Klaus Schroeder : The SED state. History and structures of the GDR. Bavarian State Center for Political Education, Munich 1998, pp. 556–564.
  6. ↑ a b c School reform and society. Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 1975, accessed on August 21, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Harald Uhlendorff, Andreas Seidel: School in East Germany from a parental perspective. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 47/2001, pp. 501–516. 2001, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Lutz Stäudel, Erhard Rupprecht: School Baunatal: Lessons from the development. 1976, accessed August 23, 2015 .
  9. ^ Klaus-Jürgen Tillmann: Carl-Heinz Evers - The father of the comprehensive school? Retrieved August 23, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Jürgen Oelkers: The reform of the pedagogy: Hartmut von Hentig. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016 ; accessed on August 23, 2015 .
  11. ↑ a b Judith Kurth: The history of the Finnish school - from the beginnings of popular education to the establishment of the comprehensive school. In: Dissertation. May 2005, accessed August 23, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Theses on the development of the education system in the next 20 years. In: DDS - The German School. Retrieved August 23, 2015 .
  13. ^ Hans-Georg Tegethoff, Uwe Wilkesmann: Lean Administration - Lean Education. Is the public administration learning about slimming? Retrieved August 23, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Consequences of the primary school comparisons. Retrieved August 23, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Dieter Katzenbach, Joachim Schroeder: "Being able to be different without fear" About inclusion and its feasibility . In: Journal for Inclusion . tape 2 , no. 1 , February 28, 2009 ISSN  1862-5088 ( inklusion-online.net [accessed 23 August 2015]).
  16. ^ WDR: Gesamtschule ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ Günter Kutscha: Integrated learning. 1996, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  18. ^ Christian Palentien: Growing up in poverty - growing up in educational poverty. About the connection between poverty and school success. In: Journal for Pedagogy 51/2005. 2005, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  19. ↑ Peter Drewek: The Development of the Education System in the Western Zones and in the Federal Republic from 1945/49 to 1990. Structural continuity and reforms, educational expansion and system problems. Page 250, 1994, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  20. ^ Education system in Germany. 2010, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Beate Hundertpfund: Fritz Karsen. Retrieved August 21, 2015 .
  22. ^ Klaus Mancke: Aspects of the school reform at the beginning of the post-war period. In: Democratic Education, Volume 3, issue 6/1977, pp. 651–662. 1977, accessed August 23, 2015 .
  23. ↑ Christian Fischer, Harald Ludwig: Versatile promotion as a task of the all-day school. In: Support in a variety of ways. All-day school yearbook 2010. 2009, accessed on 23 August 2015 .
  24. ↑ Marion Klewitz: Berliner Einheitsschule 1945–1951. Creation of implementation and revision of the Reform Act of 1947/48 (= historical and educational studies. Vol. 1). Colloquium-Verlag, Berlin 1971, ISBN 3-7678-0296-1 .
  25. ↑ Jürgen Oelkers: What problems should a comprehensive school solve? 2007, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  26. ^ Thelma von Freymann: On the internal structure of the Finnish school system. In: Freedom of Science. Issue 2, June 2002, ISSN  0343-7752 , pp. 1–5, (PDF; 59 kB).
  27. ^ Helmut Fend: Comprehensive school in comparison. Balance of the results of the comprehensive school experiment. Beltz, Weinheim et al. 1982, ISBN 3-407-54126-0 .
  28. ↑ Caroline Mascher: Unified school in France: "The level has dropped dramatically". In: Focus Online . June 27, 2008, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Forsa survey documents: structured school system receives broad support. In: PhV NW. Retrieved August 23, 2015 .
  30. ↑ FORSA | Generation education. In: www.generation-bildung.de. Retrieved August 23, 2015 .
  31. ↑ derstandard.at: majority of Austrians for a structured school system