School with extended Russian lessons
The school with extended Russian lessons in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), also called Russian school , class with extended Russian lessons , R-school , R-class or language class , was a Polytechnic Oberschule (POS) or Extended Oberschule (EOS) with a special focus on Russian language lessons . As a special school, it was one of the institutions for promoting talented students in the GDR.
The same curriculum was used in the R schools as in the polytechnic high schools. As a rule, the teachers in these classes applied stricter assessment standards for performance in all subjects, which made it easier for students to transition to the advanced secondary schools (to the Abitur). The percentage of those R students who got an EOS place varied from region to region and from history. While in the 1960s R-classes were not infrequently transferred to the EOS as a single unit, in the 1980s, with their high-birth-rate pupils and limited study places, significantly fewer were able to go to EOS.
history
Since the school year 1949/50, Russian has been taught as the first foreign language in all GDR schools from the 5th school year onwards as the language of the Eastern European leadership, the Soviet Union; since the academic year 1951/52, Russian lessons have also been compulsory for students at universities and technical schools in all disciplines . In the school year 1952/53, classes with “extended” Russian lessons were set up at the first elementary schools (later called polytechnic high schools) in order to give a small number of pupils better access to this language from the third school year onwards. After a few years there was usually one R-class train per city or district from the 3rd to the 10th school year. If there were enough students with the appropriate performance, complete R-classes could also be transferred to the extended secondary school as a special class. The R classes were not designed as elite classes by the state, but mostly developed in this direction thanks to the special attention of the responsible school boards and directors. The intention was that some of the students would later become Russian teachers or interpreters or complete a course (mostly natural science or technical subjects) at a Soviet university. A large number of the R students did not choose any of these paths, but learned a different profession or studied another subject. In later years there were also some Russian special schools with particularly intensive language teaching.
Access
For access to the schools, good performance (average grade of 1.5 and good top marks ) was a mandatory requirement, which was also the reason for the very high level compared to the polytechnic schools without gifted education. During the second year of school, the pupils were selected at the suggestion of the respective class teacher and school management in discussions with their parents. Since it was known that the R-classes were taught by very good teachers in all subjects and that few lessons were canceled, parents who had a university education or considered university education to be worthwhile (engineers, doctors, teachers, theologians but also craftsmen, etc. .) for access for their children. In making its decision, the management could take into account the information available to it about political, social or church activities of the parents at its own discretion. Whether more workers' and peasants' children or those from intelligentsia were accepted depended not least on the general political constellation: while in the 1950s / 60s it was primarily a matter of the applicants' performance, in the Honecker period from around 1973 workers were required must necessarily be taken into account, which did not mean that children were categorically excluded from doctors or theologians.
Course content
In addition to the increased (more weekly hours) Russian lessons from grade 3, English and French lessons were compulsory from the 7th school year. In grade 6, the subject geography, which in this phase practically dealt with the geography of the Soviet Union, was partly taught in Russian. All other subjects were taught according to the normal curriculum. After the introduction of the R-classes, Soviet textbooks were used in part for those starting school there, and in part with teaching material prepared by the teachers themselves. Later the Russian textbook was used for the 5th grade, then special textbooks were also developed for the R classes. The school newspaper “Po swetu” , which was used by many teachers in class, offered additional teaching material . For R-classes, language cabinets were first set up in which it was possible to work with tapes. Sometimes two teachers were used per class, who were then able to teach more effectively in small groups of seven to ten students. Russian was tested as part of the usual ten-year or Abitur examination, but with special tasks. In the 1980s, the Abitur examination was taken after grade 10 and, in connection with the Abitur examination, a language proficiency test was passed in Russian in connection with the Abitur examination , which was assessed as a preliminary stage to an interpreter examination .
Lesson tables for schools with extended Russian lessons 1957
In the spring of 1957 the first published timetable for schools with extended Russian lessons appeared, which immediately overruled the unpublished timetable in the statute for schools with extended Russian lessons. The expansion of the elementary level of the unified school into a ten-class middle school was already well advanced at that time. In contrast, the Russian schools initially existed as elementary schools and high schools. Like every non-vocational school, the Russian schools, and later all special schools and special classes, belonged to the general schools and thus have their origins in the structural plans of the MfV. It seems that only the special classes of physical and technical orientation were later handed over to the supervision of the MfHF, since control over the classes with extended Russian lessons, the classes with more modern language lessons and the classes with more ancient language lessons always remained with the MfV. The instructions on the curricula and lesson tables were also given in the VuMMfV.
Timetable for the expanded 12-class general polytechnic secondary school in 1982
The classes with extended Russian lessons, which means the Abitur level at an EOS, belonged structurally to the special classes since 1970/71 in the sense of the Ministry of National Education and were mostly to be found as affiliated parts of special schools. At the end of the 12th grade, there was not the Abitur in Russian, because that was already taken after the 10th grade at the Russian special school, but the language proficiency test.
The number of hours was almost identical to the stipulations for the normal extended secondary schools and their strong mathematical, scientific and technical core. The Russian lessons were equally extensive; the second foreign language was increased by 1 hour every semester, for which the optional lessons were reduced by 1 hour. The sound barrier of 36 hours per week, which was implicitly set up since 1946 and has been strictly observed since 1959, as the norm for schoolchildren, was not exceeded.
Special schools
In addition to the schools with extended Russian lessons, there were other special schools for foreign languages, one in Wickersdorf (known as Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf ), one in Wiesenburg / Mark ( Schloss Wiesenburg ) and another in Neubrandenburg . In terms of their orientation and concept, these schools were extended secondary schools with an attached boarding school. The aim was to prepare students for teaching Russian . In contrast to the normal EOS, these special schools also began after 1981 from grade 9 onwards. These schools were completed with the Abitur and the language proficiency test . Access to these schools was comparable to that of the R schools or R classes. In addition, however, there was a written obligation for the students to begin a teaching degree after completing school.
On the other hand, the special school for foreign languages "Johann Gottfried Herder", founded in 1975 in Berlin-Lichtenberg, began in the 3rd grade with lessons in English or French; From the 5th grade onwards, more Russian lessons were added. This school was intended to train internationally active professions, particularly in the state apparatus of the GDR; The pupils also included children of high GDR functionaries.
Individual evidence
- ↑ ddr-wissen.de
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↑ Ministry of National Education of the German Democratic Republic: Orders and communications, serial. No. 18/57
Instruction on the timetables for general schools of
April 4, 1957 - ^ Anke Huschner: Structural change in the school system of the regions Berlin and Brandenburg . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 11, 1997, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 20-25 ( luise-berlin.de ).