School Administration and Finance

The administration and funding of schools differs by the area of schooling. Mandatory schooling, vocational education, universities, and continuing education are each administered and funded in a different way.

General Mandatory Education

General mandatory education is administered and funded by the government bodies of the municipalities that benefit most directly. The Basic Law stipulates that schools and the education system as a whole are subject to governmental supervision (KMK 1993a). The inspection and administration of schools are largely a Länder responsibility, and are usually organized in a three-tier system. The three tiers consist of the culture ministry of the Land, school officials at the district level, and municipal- or communal-level inspectorates (Schulämtern). The numerous lower level schools (Grundschulen, Hauptschulen, Sonderschulen) are monitored by the municipal or communal offices. Funds for these schools are generally part of municipal or communal budgets. The less numerous Gymnasien, Gesamtschulen, Realschulen, and Berufliche Schulen are controlled by the inspectorates on the district level covering larger governmental administrative areas. Funding for middle-level schools comes from the budgets of regional-level governments. Craft or trade schools and institutions of the alternative educational path (the second path) are supervised by Länder-level agencies within the Ministries of culture and education. Each Land directly finances a few schools (e.g., music gymnasium, athletic gymnasium) that serve its population as a whole.

Alternatively, some Länder organize administration in a two-tier system, leaving out either a middle level or the lower level. Administration in the city-states is either single tiered or double tiered.

Vocational Education

Vocational training in Germany takes two forms: full-time schools and the dual system of vocational training. Full-time vocational schools are, like general mandatory education, the province of the individual Länder. They are administered and financed within the three-tier system.

The principles of certification within the dual system of vocational training, in contrast, are the responsibility of the federal government. The dual system entails close co-operation between the locally funded vocational schools and the industrial organizations at the federal, state, regional, and local levels of government (Führ 1989). The federal minister for education and science is responsible for questions of coordination. Representatives of employers, unions, Länder, and the federal government work together as equal partners in the Federal Institute for Vocational Education (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung). This institute generates the education guidelines for the workplace portion of the dual training.

At the level of the Länder, dual vocational education is regulated by committees for vocational education, which are composed of representatives of employers, unions, and state ministries. At the regional level, responsibility is assumed by local economic self-governance organizations such as chambers of commerce. These local organizations maintain vocational education committees in which employers, employees, and vocational school teachers have a say. Finally, the dual vocational system is administered at the lowest level by employee committees within the individual participating firms.

Unlike general mandatory education, the system of dual vocational education is funded by both public and private organizations, including private industry, which contributes significant resources to the maintenance of this system.

Higher Education

The administration and 92 percent of the funding for higher education is the responsibility of the individual Länder, and involves a collaboration between officials of higher education institutions and ministerial functionaries. In Germany, the institutions of higher education have the right to autonomous self-administration within the framework of the general university laws (Führ 1989). In practice, they act as administrative units, retaining autonomy over their economic, budgetary, and financial administration. Nevertheless, the ultimate responsibility resides in the state ministry for control of the disciplines, founding and organization of universities, and financial and personnel issues.

Continuing Education

Continuing education in Germany exhibits a rich variety of organizational forms and funding sources, and is based on the underlying principles of institutional independence and freedom of choice in both course content and selection of personnel. More than any other sector of German education, the system of continuing education has developed as an independent system (Führ 1989). Existing parallel to the state-sponsored education system, it includes a combination of public and private and nonprofit and profit organizations. The primary responsibility for the organization and administration of continuing education resides in the citizens themselves. Local industrial and craft associations regulate the recognition of certification for courses of continuing education. Funding for continuing education is derived largely from student fees.

Governmental agencies are involved only to the extent that they establish the necessary legal preconditions for the development of this sector, and promote co-operation among social groups in the planning and implementation of continuing- education programs. Certain types of continuing education, however, are subject to governmental oversight and receive government funding. For example, education geared toward retraining unemployed people, or people threatened with unemployment, is the responsibility of the Federal Agency for Work (Bundesanstalt für Arbeit).

Statistics on School Financing

Public funding of the education system is based on several underlying principles. First, German education is generally free to the student. Educational institutions are not financed by student fees but directly from public budgets. Second, the government underwrites the living costs of members of certain groups while they attend school. Third, the public funding of education is integrated into the decision-making processes of the political-administrative system, with various forms of funding at different levels of government being coordinated into an integrated and meaningful whole (Führ 1989). Tables 9 and 10 show the financing of the education system in the former West German Länder. Statistics for the new Länder are not yet available.

Table 9—Spending for education by domain in billions of Deutsche Marks, 1991

aIncludes youth education outside the school.

Proportional spending by domain has remained relatively stable. Public expenditures for education accounted in 1990 for 13.8 percent of government spending in the Federal Republic of Germany (the old Länder), and represented 4.2 percent of Germany's gross national product. This amounted to 1,613 deutsche marks (DM) per inhabitant ($1,008 at an exchange rate of 1.6 DM per dollar) (KMK 1993a).

In 1991, the cost of education was distributed over the different political-administrative levels as shown in Table 10.

Table 10—Percentage of spending on education by domain and political-administrative level

Table 10 shows that preschool education is primarily funded by localities, the bulk of funding for both primary, secondary, and higher education comes from the Länder, continuing education is paid for at all levels, and academic and research support is provided mainly through the federal budget. This pattern of funding reflects the underlying principle that communities that benefit most directly pay the bill.

The Local Organization of Elementary and Secondary Public Schooling

Although German schools differ greatly in their academic orientation, they share a set of common organizational structures and practices prescribed in the Länder school laws. School laws provide for a uniform calendar, school day, and class period, and for a uniform configuration of councils in local school governance. The temporal and organizational standardization of schooling applies to both the elementary and secondary levels (Führ 1989).

Temporal Standards

The German school year runs from August 1 through July 31. The actual beginning and ending of the school year varies according to the timing of the summer vacation. Summer vacations last 6 weeks and are staggered among the various Länder in order to alleviate traffic problems that would result from an annual exodus to the south by millions of vacationing Germans. When other shorter holidays are included, the total number of vacation days amounts to 75 workdays per year. To this are added 10 legal or religious holidays. On average, there are 188 class days per year (with a 5-day week). In some states, classes also meet on two or three Saturdays per month, raising the average number of class days. The total number of hours of instruction remains constant, however, because the number of hours is distributed over the number of days available.

The number of lessons per week varies with grade level. The typical elementary school requires from 17 to 27 periods per week; class periods last 45 minutes. The German school day typically begins at 8 a.m. and ends between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Most students have class in the afternoon one or two times a week, especially if their school has no class on Saturday. Classes are scheduled on a weekly basis, so the schedule varies over the course of the week. In most Länder, the number of school periods per week begins at 20 in the first grade and rises to 27 by the fourth grade.

With the demographic shift to larger numbers of working women in Germany, there has developed a demand for care of children outside the hours of mandatory instruction. Three models for such care exist and vary according to pedagogical philosophy, length of time during the day, and financial support from different institutional bodies?Länder, localities, or private citizens. These models include the Hort, day care made available by the municipal government as well as other institutions (e.g., local churches); extension of firm school hours beyond those required for mandatory instruction (i.e., 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. instead of varying from day to day); and all-day schooling in which instruction is extended and combined with social education. The second model of extending school hours but not instructional hours has had the most popular response. Both the Hort and the program for extending school hours require parents to pay monthly fees?up to $200 for the Hort, less for extended school hours (KMK 1993a).

At the secondary level, schooling consists of between 30 and 36 lessons per week, according to the type of school as shown in table 11. The more academically oriented schools generally require more time in class. As in elementary education, lessons in secondary education last 45 minutes. Many secondary schools, however, combine lessons to form units of between 80 and 90 minutes. There are short breaks between lessons, and these add up to about 40 minutes in a morning of five lessons. Students pursuing part-time vocational education at the upper secondary level attend up to 12 lessons weekly over 1 or 2 days, and spend the remaining workdays either training in their firms or working in their jobs.

Table 11—Range of Class Hours per Week by School Type

School Organization

German schools at the elementary and secondary levels are organized uniformly according to definitions and dictates detailed in Länder law and in administrative directives of the respective ministries of culture and education. Although there are differences across Länder, the core structure of schooling is shared by all German schools in these two domains. The structure explicitly outlines the role of school leadership in the position of school director and provides for the collaboration of teachers, parents, and students through various administrative forums or councils, such as the school council, the teachers' council, and the parents' council (Führ 1989).

The school director. School directors are usually teachers who have been appointed to a position of formal leadership within their school by the local governmental office of schools. Unlike American principals, German school directors continue to teach during their tenure. The school directorship entails a well-specified set of duties and powers outlined in a framework contained within the Länder school law. This framework requires them to work closely with their school council (see below) to consider both legal and administrative directives in their work and ensure that legal and administrative directives are carried out at the school level. Consequently, school directors have formal directive authority over other teachers. Within the school, school directors distribute classes among teachers, schedule class hours, and review and assess classroom instruction. They also are responsible for the administration of substitute teaching, the maintenance of a balanced workload among teachers, and the coordination of grading. In addition to these internal administrative duties, school directors formally represent their school to outside constituencies.

The school council. The school council is a consultative forum in which teachers, parents, and students jointly discuss and decide upon a variety of issues. The composition of the school council varies across the Länder. In some Länder, teachers are given half the votes, and parents and students are each given a quarter of the votes; in other Länder, the three constituencies share votes equally. The school director convenes sessions of the school council.

Länder law includes a list of issues the school councils should address, although other issues not included in the list may be addressed as well. Although the contents of this list vary across Länder, it generally includes the organization of instruction and school life, including the school rules, schedules, and spatial organization. Other issues commonly include the physical protection of students at school and going to and from school, as well as the planning of school events, such as school partnerships and field trips. School councils are often explicitly required to address issues of academic content, including those concerning pedagogy, schoolbooks, homework, and grading. In addition, the school council can decide on important strategic issues, the internal organization of divisions within the school, the division of the school into separate schools, mergers with other schools, and building projects. It also may address conflict situations and play a role in the counseling of parents and students involved in such conflicts. The school council may recommend or sometimes veto the appointment of a school director.

The teachers' council. The teachers' council is the self-governing administrative body of teachers within the school. Every school has a general teachers' council that includes all teachers; some schools also may have councils for subgroups of teachers in particular disciplines. The school director acts as the chairperson of the general teachers' council. The council deals with various issues of instruction without infringing on the autonomy of individual teachers. In many Länder, parents have a right to nonvoting participation on issues that do not directly affect students' grading and advancement.

The parent council. At the beginning of each school year, the parents in each class choose a representative to sit on the school's parent council. This council has a voice in the formulation of school policy and the planning of the curricula. The school parents' councils, in turn, provide delegates from among themselves for similar councils at the local, district, and regional levels. Länder and national councils have varying rights of participation in discussions of educational policy, and their advice is called on by school parents' councils when addressing local issues.

Student participation. Student participation varies according to students' age. Students in elementary school have the opportunity to participate only in class offices, such as class speaker, a position that in some Länder is mandated beginning in the first grade. Otherwise, students' interests are represented through the parent council or, in special cases where the elementary school is integrated with a secondary-level school (the Bavarian Volksschule), by secondary-level students. Students in lower level secondary school participate in the school conference.

Other participants. At the school level, German school laws provide only for the participation of the parties immediately involved: parents, teachers, and students. Other participants become involved only at the regional and Länder levels, where participation rights are granted to representatives of industry, labor, churches, higher education, youth groups, high-level leagues of community groups, and community leaders. Although any of these representatives may participate at the school level for informational and consultative purposes, they may do so only upon explicit invitation.

Summary

As a federally structured system, German education exhibits a great deal of variety. One can speak only loosely of a unified system of German education. Because each of the Länder formulates its own education policy, the specific aspects of school organization vary considerably. When placed in comparative perspective, however, the uniform aspects of German education emerge. The federal structure of German education has fostered cooperation and compromise among the Länder ministries of culture and education in the development of a common general principle for the provision and financing of public education and a standard set of school types.

Each of the Länder supports a three-tiered system of public education, including elementary education, lower level and upper level secondary education, and higher education. In addition, each of the Länder supports a system of special schools for students with disabilities. Elementary education, which usually encompasses the first 4 years of mandatory education (ages 6 through 9), is structured uniformly in order to ensure an equality of educational opportunity for all children. Lower level secondary education, which includes the 5th through 9th (often the 10th) years of mandatory education, is structured primarily according to a traditional German system of educational tracking and includes a hierarchy of three school types: the Hauptschule, the Realschule, and the Gymnasium.

The Hauptschule caters to the less academically and more practically inclined students. The Gymnasium emphasizes theory-based education for students who excel in school. The Realschule offers a compromise between the Hauptschule and the Gymnasium for children who have both theoretical and practical interests and aptitudes. In the 1970s, the Gesamtschule, or comprehensive school, emerged as an alternative to this traditional hierarchical system. The cooperative Gesamtschule retains the three tracks but includes all within one school organization. The integrated Gesamtschule does away with tracking altogether and introduces a system of advanced and honors courses for scholastically talented students.

Upper level secondary schooling, which generally encompasses grades 11 through 13, extends the differentiation introduced in lower level secondary education by strongly distinguishing between liberal and vocational education. Liberal education is offered in the upper levels of both the Gymnasium and the Gesamtschule. Vocational education is offered in two separate systems: a full-time system including a large variety of specialized vocational and trade schools, and a part-time system combining actual work experience with part-time classroom instruction.

Higher education further extends academic differentiation in a heterogeneous collection of universities, technical universities, vocational Hochschulen, and institutes. When viewed as a whole, German education presents the picture of a highly differentiated but coherently integrated system emphasizing the development of specialized knowledge and skill.

Private educational institutions exist in Germany, but they are relatively limited in scope. They make their most significant contributions at the levels of preschool and continuing education, and have a notable presence at the secondary level in the form of parochial (Catholic) Waldorf schools.

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[The Educational Structure of the German School System - Part 2]

[The Educational Structure of the German School System - References]