Thank you very much for your question! For me - as a former teacher of English and sports in Hauptschule (now Mittelschule) and Realschule - it is a kind of professional self-reflection. And it is by no means easy to answer. The structure varies from state to state in Germany. Some, like Bavaria, stick to the "trinity" of HS/RS/Gym after the primary Level (Grundschule). Others, like Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein, offer a dual system with Gesamtschule and Gymnasium from grade 5. But do both solutions, as external means of differentiation, also represent the individual/personal development differences of the students? I would say not completely. The external structure might help, with its varieties of individual offers and special subjects, to preselect and guide. The efficiency, an original economic category, of both systems is dependent of the permeability from one school type to the other, no matter if two or three on the secondary level, when it comes to a faster or slower individual development than expected beforehand. The opportunity to permanently change is constituent.  And, what is more, it is always a question of the internal differentiation and individualization methods the teacher provides. His/her quality is an important aspect of the Efficiency question.

Therefore, the efficiency cannot yet be empirically & finally proven and is still subject to research and evaluation - which is also still a desideratum.

Hope, I could help a little further!

Thank you very much for your question! For me, as a former teacher of English and sports in Hauptschule (now Mittelschule) and Realschule, it is a kind of professional self-reflection. And it is by no means easy to answer! The structure varies from state to state in Germany. Some, like Bavaria, stick to the trinity of HS/RS/GYM after the primary level at the age of about 6. Others, like Berlin or Schleswig-Holstein, offer a dual system with Gesamtschule and Gymnasium. But do these solutions, as external means of differentiation, also represent the individual/personal development differences of the students? I would say not completely. The external structure might help, with ist varieties of individual offers and special subjects, to preselect and guide. The efficiency of both systems is dependent of the permeability from one school type to the other, no matter if two or three on the secondary level, when it comes to a faster or even slower individual development of the kids than expected beforehand. And, what is more, it is always a question of the internal differentiation and individualization methods the teacher provides. The quality of his/her teaching competences in this respect is a most important aspect.

Therefore, the efficiency cannot yet be finally proven, and is still subject to research & evaluation - which remains also still a desideratum.

Hope this could help a little further!

SECONDARY SCHOOL YEARS “ teach them how to learn and love learning.” Responses to the Secondary Years section of Excellence and Innovation cover a wide range of issues across the full breadth of secondary schooling.

‘one size fits all’ philosophy may have suited the 19th and 20thcenturies’ demands but it does not suit 21st century demands for quality education. It is essential that schools have the opportunity to argue ‘local needs – local priorities’ on key issues and the system needs to respond accordingly

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/reviews/futuresproject/report/i_ch2secyrs.pdf

Our Education System

No.

I love this graphic Talib

Very funny buy very apt

Krishnan,

Appreciate the article on the New South Wales review of their secondary education system.  Reinforces that this challenge is a global one.

Of value was that the report was grounded in research conducted to get the feedback from students, teachers, parents, administrators and policy-makers.

Silburn

Heiner,

Thanks for sharing the insights from the perspective of a participant/teacher.

Would you have any data of level of student disengagement based on a failure to achieve any certification of competency at the end of secondary years

One of the other measures often used for lack of effectiveness is the drop-out rate. While not all incidence of drop-out can be laid at the feet of the secondary school system, it nevertheless is used as a proxy for students disengagement from the system. 

Silburn

I would start with the primary level school curricular that should incorporate more STEAM (Science, Technology, Arts, and Math) so students can be exposed to a range of learning experiences that could help to identify their potential aptitudes. Then I think we can do better streaming of their aptitudes going into secondary school.

Many thanks,

Debra

German education is one of the brightest in the world.I'm for the humanistic education-I'm against injustice in the education at all(it must be free of charge and free to all, taking into consideration,that our students are not very healthy,but they are Indigo).This problem should be common for all educators from all over the world.Inge Unt  (Estonia) is for individualization and differentiation, Deborah Meier (America) is against USE as a unified one,without alternatives.International humanists (Soloveichik,Likhachov,Yamburg,Korczak,Amonoshvily,Ushinsky,Pestalozzi,Sukhomlinsky,Leontyev,Dewey,Rerikhs...) are and were against bureaucratic violence to students and teachers.To me,the most terrible thing is to form an inferiority complex in a child.Every human being must be sure in his/her uniquiness, talents and freedom.For that there must be balance between the external and internal worlds. Nowadays humanistic principles come into collision to the laws of the corrupt society."To what will you prepare your son?-To be a human being."I'm sure,"Every baby comes into the world with the good news,that God has not been disappointed with people".My humanistic conception "The City of Masters"-World art Assembly (the second place in Russia) http://www.russiancup.net/index.php/fotos/119-2012spring/nauka4/4170-pechjonkina-irina-mikhajlovna

Irina

Fully agree with your comments and so the issue becomes,how do we make the nesessary adjustments to what currently prevails

Silburn

Thanks Debra,

STEAM-trained kids at the Primary level would tend to facilitate better (a more granular) detection and filtering of aptitudes, interests, preferences and potential in the kids.

On the basis of that filtering, then it may be that at a minimum the secondary system should possibly offer  least three streams for the primary kids:

a.  Arts Colleges

b. Technical / Vocational Colleges

c.  General / Academic Colleges

This streaming would certainly offer the advantage of concentrating specialised teaching resources into specialist secondary colleges rather than spreading all resources over all secondary colleges

Silburn

I like to see this issue from a different perspective using my personal experience from my country's educational context. When students are streamlined very early, the supposed "better fit with the aptitude, potential and interest of the kids over the secondary years" is provided based on what the adults in the life of these children think is a better fit, perhaps using different assessment systems. It is my personal opinion that a unitary educational structure that exposes the children to all of the available options at least to a stage when they can reasonably decide for themselves, based on their personal experiences, passion and interest (the individual differences thing) might offer greater benefits to the children in the long run.

My country (Nigeria) runs a 9-3-4 structure where the first 9 years is for 6 years of primary school education and 3 years of Junior Seconday school education.  Students then write an examination which assess their aptitudes and achievement. Their performance in this examination and students' interest/passion informs the stream they would join in the next 3 years of Senior secondary school education and perhaps 4 years (more or less) of further and/or higher education. Looking back, I like the fact that I chose the stream I wanted when I did, having been exposed to introductory aspects of the streams, which was enough to help me make an informed decision at the time. Of course, every model has its problematic areas.

As we all  know ,the education should be in accordance with students'aptitude,but there are still many parents let their children choose to go to college instead ofvocational schools.This is because a college degree can earn better jobs or opportunity for their children.So, in China, most children will need to spend much more time in order to go to the limited number of the university. I think that  German parents are wise, also is non-utilitarianism, so they can adhere to the children for this.It is worthy of our study Chinese parents.