"Churchill: Speech, Zurich (19th of September 1946)

1975 – School and Education Reform in the Federal Republic and in the GDR

Economic and social developments in both German states in the 1950s and 1960s did not fail to exert their influence on their respective education systems. In the Federal Republic, tension between economic and social modernisation and the stasis apparent within educational policy became increasingly explicit. The growing demand for a qualified workforce in the wake of the country’s economic boom together with the increase in population led to educational expansion, i.e. greater participation in the education system. There was an increase in the numbers of pupils attending the more advanced schools, which however, did not precipitate particularly noticeable change in social mobility within the school system. The generational conflict of the 1960s and attempts to democratise post-war society likewise contributed to a move towards comprehensive educational reform.
In the mid-1960s, the diagnosis of a Bildungskatastrophe (‘educational catastrophe’), as posited by Georg Picht in 1964, heralded criticism of the lack of modernisation in the West German education system. The German Education Council (Deutscher Bildungsrat) founded in 1965 and comprising representatives from education authorities, society and academia, took on the task of developing recommendations for educational reform on behalf of the German federal and state governments. The ‘Structural Plan for the Education System’ it presented in 1970 called for a restructuring of the system along the lines of international standards. The proposals involved the replacement of the traditional vertically structured school system with a horizontal structure integrating the primary-school sector (years one to four), in the Sekundarstufe I (years five to ten) and Sekundarstufe II (years ten to thirteen) within a comprehensive type of school known as the Gesamtschule. The key ideas of the Structural Plan were incorporated into the General Education Plan drawn up in 1973 by the Federal and State Commission for Educational Planning (Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung, BLK, founded in 1970). Both plans had the overall aim of qualitative and quantitative expansion of the school system; to the end both of securing equality of opportunity for pupils and fostering their individual talents and abilities, the new type of school was to be comprehensive in intake yet internally differentiated according to pupil performance and preferences, while its teaching was to aspire to high academic standards and relate to the current state of academic research in each subject. However, as the German Education Council and the BLK were only able to make recommendations, and resistance among conservative forces in politics, society and education to further reforms, especially in the matter of school structures, was clearly on the increase in the early 1970s, these plans were only partially implemented. Years five and six generally became an ‘orientation phase’, which was intended to postpone the decision as to which type of secondary school a pupil would ultimately attend until a later date and thus allow a more accurate assessment of his or her abilities. Further, the sixth-form level of Gymnasium, the Oberstufe, experienced reforms including the introduction of a wider range of courses and subject options together with methods of working intended to prepare pupils for higher education. This notwithstanding, the integrated Gesamtschule was, following a trial period of ten years, only introduced in the states governed by the Social Democrats (SDP), and even here merely as a fourth type of school alongside the Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium; further, the foundation of a Gesamtschule was made dependent on the parental demand. Even these partial reforms caused controversy over the following years, a contributory factor to which was a number of shortcomings in their implementation. The radical educational reform attempted for in the mid-1960s must therefore be regarded as a failed project. In spite of a clear increase in numbers of pupils attending advanced educational facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, education opportunities continued to be highly dependent on social class, whereas gender inequality within education was more or less overcome during this period.
In the GDR, the structures created at the end of the 1950s were confirmed by legislation on 25 February 1965. This legislation on a ‘Uniform Socialist Education System’provided an overarching framework regulating all sectors and aspects of the country’s education system. It emphasised the ideological and political mission of schools and declared the development of a ‘socialist personality’ to be a goal of education. The new subject of ‘defence education’ (Wehrunterricht) introduced in 1978 was a key component of the ideological project of raising class-conscious, loyal, socialist citizens, as well as indicating the extent to which educational practices in the GDR were permeated by military culture as well as ideological notions. The central institution of control over education in the country was the Ministry of People’s Education (Ministerium für Volksbildung), which developed curricula and monitored textbooks. The theoretical foundations of socialist education were based on the work of the Academy of Education Sciences, a state institute whose actions were required to adhere closely to political imperatives, and teachers were expected to implement these principles in their teaching practice. Teaching was structured by a curriculum that was compulsory for all schools, with uniformly specified numbers of weekly lessons for each subject and an obligatory, state-licensed textbook for each subject, accompanied by teaching handbooks. This self-contained set of social and educational principles was based on the idea that it would enable entire generations of pupils to experience a shared socialist education, thus strengthening relationships between generations and promoting the development of a uniform socialist society. The implementation of these political and ideological aims was supported by the Ministry’s centralised management of the school system, which extended into individual schools, and the requirement imposed upon the lower-level authorities to report back to the Ministry.
From an institutional point of view, there were no major reforms at this time. From 1982 onwards, pupils did not progress to an Erweiterte Oberschule until they had reached year ten of their schooling, with the result that such schools were reduced to only two year groups. Anyone wishing to transfer to an EOS needed to have learnt a second foreign language as well as Russian. Around three to four per cent of any one school year received the opportunity to continue their school career at an EOS. Alongside pupils’ performance, political and ideological criteria remained decisive in this regard; after the change in the definition of the elite precipitated by the education system of the 1950s, these criteria functioned more as a return to social exclusion than as their opposite in the changed education-policy landscape of the 1970s and 1980s.
Teaching at the POS remained focused on mathematics and the sciences in accordance with the requirements of the GDR economy. In 1988, this area took up 29 per cent of all teaching time at these schools; 22.9 per cent was occupied with German language and literature and 11 per cent was concerned with ‘polytechnischer Unterricht, which involved an introduction to the workings of the GDR economy (Einführung in die sozialistische Produktion), technical drawing and ‘practical work’ in which pupils experienced regular sessions of collective work in industrial or agricultural settings.
Education and learning enjoyed a high status in GDR society, being viewed as of central importance to the continued development of a socialist society and as vital in ensuring young people developed ‘socialist personalities’. The educational institutions that had been installed during the Soviet occupation were extended and streamlined under the supervision of the state and the SED.


Susanne Grindel
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