Attractive School System

In Germany, responsibility for the school system lies mainly with the country’s 16 federal states Federal states Germany is a federal state. Both the central federal government and the 16 federal states have independent areas of jurisdiction. The government in Berlin is responsible for foreign policy, European policy, defense, justice, employment, social affairs, tax and health. The federal states are… Read more › . This is why there are different school systems, curricula and types of schools across Germany. The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) guarantees the conformity or comparability of the education programmes and the qualifications awarded.

In the 2024/2025 academic year, 11.4 million pupils attended the 40,000 or so general education and vocational schools, which employ nearly 870,000 teachers. Roughly nine percent of pupils in general education attend the country’s 3,800 or so general private schools, while around ten percent of students in vocational education attend the roughly 2,200 vocational private schools. School attendance is compulsory for all children from the age of six for a nine-year period. At the same time, early-years education and how it connects with primary schooling is a high-priority issue in education policy. Around 20,000 whole-day schools now have a firm place in the education system. These schools are intended to improve equality of opportunity, particularly for children from edu­cationally deprived backgrounds.

It costs nothing to attend a state school in Germany. The school system is divided into three levels: primary education and secondary education levels I and II. As a rule, all children attend a primary school, which lasts from Year 1 to 4 (Years 1 to 6 in Berlin Berlin Once a year, during the Berlinale film festival, the world of the silver screen focuses its attention on Berlin. And the city’s inhabitants are used to global interest. After all, the people of Berlin have lived in a capital city since 1458. However, there is also a shady side to the city’s history… Read more › and Brandenburg Brandenburg Brandenburg surrounds the capital city of Berlin and benefits from the latter’s “gin and martini belt”. However, with its numerous lakes and forests it also has several trump cards of its own. With the Hohenzollern castles, and in particular Sanssouci Castle, which is included in the UNESCO World… Read more › ). After primary school, students pursue one of three standard forms of secondary education:

• a non-selective “Hauptschule”, which teaches up to level 2 qualifications (Years 5 to 9 or 10),
• a “Realschule” (Years 5 to 10) where students attain the “Mittlere Reife” (a level 2 qualification)
• or a selective grammar school (Years 5 to 12 or 13) to attain a general higher education entrance diploma, or Abitur.

Some schools provide a single form of secondary education, while others combine two or three (as in the case of comprehensive “Gesamtschulen”), making it easier to switch between different forms. The names of these types of school vary depending on the state; only grammar schools (“Gymnasium”) are known as such in all states. In 2024 around 373,000 school students achieved a higher education entrance diploma.

Children with special educational needs can attend separate schools that are able to cater for their specific needs. Nevertheless, the aim is for it to become standard for children with and without disabilities to learn together, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The Federal Government Federal Government The Federal Government and cabinet is made up of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers. While the Chancellor holds the power to issue directives, the ministers have departmental powers, meaning that they independently run their respective ministries in the framework of those directives… Read more › is paying particular attention to providing better educational opportunities to children and young people, regardless of their parents’ social situation.

The 136 German schools abroad provide an excellent education in over 70 countries. Around 85,000 students learn together at these schools, 66 percent of them being of non-German origin. Most of the schools are privately funded, but they receive financial and staffing support from the Central Agency for German Schools Abroad (ZfA). Since 2008, the PASCH initiative (“Schools: Partners for the Future”), which is coordinated by the Federal Foreign Office, has been working with the ZfA and the Goethe-Institut to create an even larger network of German students. It connects more than 2,000 schools around the world, with over 600,000 students learning German.