March 27th，2012，Shower　Special Middle School System and Its Problem

Wang Chenxin goes shopping with Li shaopeng and his wife. On their way home, they see several young drunkards are arrested by policeman and taken away in a police car.

Li Shaopeng sighs and says：“Typical social problem of Germany. Pre-school education at kindergarten is voluntary and mainly run by non-public bodies such as churches and welfare associattons, but parents are also required to contribute.Compulsory educatton starts at the age of six or seven, conttnues for nine or ten years and is usually state-funded（private educattonal instttuttons only play a subordinate role）.All children must inittally attend primary school for four years.Affer that, they go separate ways.Parents must decide at this point-following advice from teachers-whether their child should attend a lower secondary school（Hauptschule），an intermediate secondary school（Realschule or Mittelschule）or a higher secondary school（Gymnasium）.About 30%of all children are sent to the lower，40%to the intermediate and the other 30%to the higher secondary school.”

“What is different among Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium?”asks Wang Chenxin.

“Lower secondary school（Hauptschule）lasts for only five years and the quality of education there is very low, resulting in graduates（Certificate of Lower Secondary Education）facing difficulties in finding a good trainee or apprenticeship. There is also a high percentage of children from immigrant families, whose parents usually do not know German very well and who can therefore not support their children in the same way as German parents.Many of these families are not integrated properly into German society and tend to suffer from financial or other social problems.The bad conditions at the lower secondary schools reffect these problems and things seem to have worsened during the last years as can be judged from frequent news reports about outbursts of violence and misbehaviour at these schools.It is one of the major challenges of German society and politicians to improve this situatton and to provide these pupils with better integratton and job opportunittes.”

Intermediate secondary school（Realschule or Mittelschule）usually lasts for six years and finishes with the Intermediate School Leaving Certtffcate, which qualiffes the pupil for admission to courses of upper secondary education, e.g.at special full-time vocational schools（Berufsfachschule）or at specialized higher secondary schools（Fachoberschule）leading up to the Advanced Technical College Certtffcate（Fachhochschulreife），which allows the holder to later study at a college of Applied Sciences（Fachhochschule）.A college of Applied Sciences is the same as the college of Engineering and Technology in China.If a certain level of performance is achieved, an entrance qualiffcatton for transfer to the upper level of higher secondary school（Gymnasiale Oberstufe）can also be obtained.In most cases though, as the Certificate of Lower Secondary Education, the Intermediate School Leaving Certtffcate is used for entering vocattonal training.

“Higher secondary school（Gymnasium）ffrst lasts for six years and also ffnishes with the Intermediate School Leaving Certtffcate.After that, some pupils decide to continue their education by doing a vocattonal training, but most will enter the upper level of higher secondary school（Gymnasiale Oberstufe）covering grades 11-12（sometimes 13，it depends on which part of Germany you live in）and, upon passing the final exams, they will receive the General Certificate of Aptitude for Higher Education（Allgemeine Hochschulreife）.The standard of education in the upper level of higher secondary school is generally very high and its curriculum is specially designed to prepare the pupils to enter a university.Besides a few exceptions such as medicine or law, psychology, many German universities and majors do not require any other selection procedure or entrance exam.Yet, More and more Universities establish a kind of an entrance examination or at least an application, so you have an interview first.The General Certtffcate of Aptttude for Higher Educatton permits the holder to study any subject at any instttutton of higher educatton including all universities, i.e.with it you can usually study whatever and wherever you like.Of course, sometimes the students have to go through the selection process for pragrams with a restricted number of places（Numerns Clausus）.Graduates from the upper level of higher secondary school also have the best chances in finding an excellent traineeship within multinational companies, banks or other important instttuttons.”says Li Shaopeng.

Cultural Case 5

A Sanitary Ware company（洁具公司）of Germany signed a contract of Joint Venture with a Chinese company in Jiangsu Province.Affer it, the president of Chinese company telephoned the Chief Manager of German company and wanted to revise some clauses.The German said angrily：“No way”.Why?

Explanation of Cultural Case 5

For Germans, a contract is the ffnal product of trade.It is not something in transitton.