Selective Schools - Germany

Germany

The German public school system is fundamentally selective after four or six years of elementary school. The selective Gymnasium (grades 5 or 7 through 12) is supposed to prepare pupils for university. Some federal states, however, allow parents a free choice of school, however. The German Realschule is also a selective school, though with lower requirements, ending at grade 10.

The pros and cons of a selective school system are a constant issue in disussions about German schools, while many parents take strong efforts to make their children attend Gymnasium.

Attendance of Gymnasium had strongly increased in the second part of the 20th century to the majority of pupils in many areas. As consequently, mainly pupils with rather low aptitudes remained for the non-selective Hauptschule, traditionally the third main tier (and originally the main tier) of the German school system, some German federal states have abolished the three-tier system in favor of a combination of Realschule and Hauptschule, starting about 1997. Such non-selective schools are called differently, e.g. "advanced Realschule" or the "Realschule Plus", Sekundarschule or Integrierte Sekundarschule.