The elementary school Simon attended until 4th grade

We’ve got warm weather and sunny skies right now in Germany. Most kids here are now going to open air pools, looking forward to six weeks of summer holidays. But some are also afraid of the end of the school year. Their grades aren’t good enough to go on to the next class level or to stay at their school. I talked with one of my mom’s friends, Gaby, about such worries.

Her son Simon is in ninth grade at a Gymnasium (German high school) in Rhineland-Palatinate. In Germany, there are different educational systems because every state’s parliament decides about educational politics (Jürgen commented on this here). In Rhineland-Palatinate, there are three options kids have after finishing fourth grade at a Grundschule (elementary school):

• Realschule Plus: 5th to 10th grade
• Gymnasium: 5th to 12.5th grade, ends with what’s called an Abitur (a certificate allowing students to go to university)
• Gesamtschule: combines the other two kinds of schools into one

After Simon had finished fourth grade, he went to a Gymnasium. His grades have become worse over the years, though.

“His Latin teacher said that he has to make up more than one year of lessons,” Gaby told us sadly.

In other subjects, Simon’s grades are also too bad to go on to grade 10 at his school after summer break. So, what to do? Simon’s mother doesn’t know where to turn in this situation. She would prefer to send her son to a Gesamtschule which has a very good reputation. But Gesamtschulen don’t have to take all pupils who apply.

“Last year I registered Simon already. He was put on a waiting list. But in the end, there were no free spots,” Gaby said. She had already bought all of the school books.

A German Gymnasium (high school)

Should she now register him for a Realschule Plus? Or should he repeat his class level on the Gymnasium he’s attending now? Gaby doesn’t consider the second option workable because Simon would still struggle with Latin. And he wouldn’t be able to make up the missing lessons during summer break.

If Gaby and her husband decide for a Realschule Plus, they can register their son for ninth grade. Here, Simon wouldn’t need to take a second foreign language besides English. So his problems with Latin would be solved. But will this enable Simon to concentrate on the other subjects and to balance his other weaknesses so that he will have a good diploma after tenth grade?

Situations like this are very difficult for children and their parents. It is especially hard for kids to separate from their classmates they’ve known for years. In a new class at a new school, they will have to integrate into an existing class community. And besides these kinds of social difficulties, they have to study hard to be more successful at school. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Simon will find a good place and will master the challenges awaiting him.

Universities are open to men and women, but the job market is a much different story

In my experience in Iraq, the opportunities open to the genders differ according to social setting, age, geographical area and religious believes. We have equality more or less during early childhood, but you still see some differences in how boys and girls are treated.

I think that the opportunities open to males are not limited. They have choices from childhood onward, and they are even allowed to bend the rules. But females are always limited in the chances they have, specifically starting around age 14. Women have to struggle to get their own rights and freedoms, and many of them have sacrificed themselves to provide the freedoms others have today.

Personally, I had no chance to go to kindergarten because of the war between Iraq and Iran. Instead, I had to flee my country with my family. But now I am a kindergarten teacher, and I believe in equality between the children. In general, the kids seem very happy, and I believe their freedom is very different from what we experienced in the past. In kindergarten, both of the genders are allowed to be placed together in the classrooms or during activities. They can play, sit next to each other, eat and sing together.

This may seem strange for you because this is a very basic right, but what do you do if you don’t have it? Sometimes you do still have to ask permission from their parents for certain things – even if you just want to let them take part in a very small activity or program.

Today's generation enjoys more freedom than mine did

When I was in primary school, I felt that both genders could be friends easily, but that it got harder to be friends once we got older. Starting in secondary school, I felt that lots of girls wanted to form friendships with the boys – but that was hard because being friends with males was viewed as an impossible right for them to have.

We have mixed primary schools, a lot of mixed secondary schools but very few mixed high schools. All of our colleges, institutes and universities are for both of the genders. I know so many women who graduated from school but are now unemployed because they haven’t had a chance to work. Some of them are able to freelance, but they may not get permission from their parents to do so.

In terms of jobs, men have completely different opportunities. Males can do whatever they want, but as I mentioned above, females always have to think about not breaking the rules they get from their parents or from the men in their lives. Women can apply for some specific government jobs in this country, but the situation they face explains why women can almost never earn more money than their husbands. In cases where that happens, they may have to share the money with men or they may be allowed to spend it only on necessities.

Maria's mother grading papers

I was having breakfast with my parents on Sunday. My mom is an English teacher, and she was grading papers. She asked me to take a look at some writing by her students.

“Do you think I’m being too demanding? This is for CAE [Cambridge English: Advanced] level,” she asked.

I pondered several things and exchanged ideas with her. It was during this conversation that I recalled how exactly I came to write in English as I do today.

When I found myself attending classes in Berlin, in an international college, writing philosophical essays of around 2,000 words, I realized I didn’t have a solid base of knowledge on how to write an essay. I had to learn how to structure complex ideas and elaborate thoughts by myself, through writing and feedback from faculty members. There’s a way in which, in Argentina, high standards in learning do not come from a joint effort, a socially sanctioned approach to providing good quality education. Instead, the standards come from individual initiative. It is by and large a common thing to hear people say: “I was lucky: in seventh grade, I had a wonderful language teacher,” or, “I didn’t have a hard time in math in college because for the last two years of high school my teacher was very demanding.”

In Argentina, when I was finishing high school, the system was 6-3-3: six years of primary school, three years of pre-high school, and three years of proper high school. In this last bit you had to choose an orientation, so it could be the case that your classmates and you had to part ways, and you found yourself in an entirely new group of people.

When preparing lessons, teachers set the standards by themselves

I remember doing grammar exercises during class. Some would take part and others would be at a complete loss. So the teacher would ask, “Who was your language teacher in pre-high school?” This is when you found out that some teachers stressed writing style, while others focused on grammar exercises, and, finally, some others made literature the priority. If you were lucky, you got a good basis in grammar and learned how to write properly and express yourself. This phenomenon that took place within the same school gets multiplied when you meet others your same age in college, who come from the provinces. Then the knowledge gap is wider than when you compare teenagers educated in Buenos Aires.

There is no single system that unifies educational standards. Even though teachers follow curricula, they may not emphasize one specific thing or another, and the rest is up to you. I sometimes get the feeling that either these topics in curricula are too general, or they are not properly evaluated at the end of the term. In any case, more often than not, you are left alone in making efforts to reach further.

Russian reforms are affecting how and what students study

After reading Emmy’s entry about Kenya’s system of education and its impact on young people’s choices, I’d like to talk about the same issue in my country.

Things are set up differently in Russia. Our schools use a 3-5-2 system. The first two steps are: primary school, which usually takes 3 years, and secondary school, which takes 5. Both are compulsory. Then there’s a choice between attending high school for 2 more years and getting the right to enter a full-time university or leaving school and doing a vocational training program.

University used to take 5 years. But Russia wants to stay on par with its important economic partners, so the country is implementing the Bologna Process – with the result that higher education is being transformed into 4 years for a bachelor’s degree and two additional years for a master’s.

I think that many professors and teachers from our (grand)parents’ generation don’t approve of this transformation since it makes them face something totally new. But being open to new things sometimes means you have to adopt foreign methods. Students themselves are sometimes at a loss when they’re asked to complete a program sponsored by the government but not fully tested and approved of by their professors.

It’s not that these methods are bad – but you have to imagine this big chain that consists of universities, colleges, their teaching staff, students and administrative staff. There’s an old network in place that finds it hard to adapt to the new system. What’s more, I can’t say that it’s teacher A or administrator B or university C that is definitely the “link” in the chain that causes problems. Each part of the network seems to contribute to the issues in the system!

Another thing – when young people realize their majors may not be their cup of tea after all, it’s natural for them to want to change. That’s why I think it’s important for a student to have the right to choose between programs without difficulty.