German schools abroad – where children from different cultures can meet and engage in dialogue
Students around a globe
The worldwide network of German schools abroad is designed to cater for the needs of Germans who are working abroad and who want their children to have a German education. Most of them are "contact" schools today and admit children from the host country and other nations, allowing them to get to know Germany, its culture and language. They are therefore places where children from different nations and cultures can meet and exchange views, and as such are particularly suited to preparing them for a shared future.
German schools abroad – a mainstay of our cultural relations and education policy
German schools abroad are a central element of our cultural relations and education policy. The "Concept 2000" guidelines for German schools abroad, reformulated by the Federal Foreign Office on the basis of a cross-party resolution by the German Bundestag in 1990 (enhance contact with the host country's society and culture, maintain and improve schooling for German children living abroad, and promote German-language teaching in host-country schools), have proved their worth.
A Bundestag plenary debate in March 2002 and the subsequent involvement of various committees confirmed the broad parliamentary agreement on this issue. The November 2005 Coalition Agreement makes special mention of the activities of the German schools abroad and calls for them to be intensified.
The system of German schools abroad is a shared success story of the Federation and the Länder. The coordinating body is the Federation-Länder Commission for Schools Abroad (BLASchA), in which the two sides cooperate closely, and which meets four times per year. The teachers seconded to German schools abroad have already worked in German schools. The award of school-leaving and university-entry certificates by Länder commissioners and the holding of further-training courses in Germany and abroad guarantees the quality of teaching at these schools.
German schools abroad create alumni networks
Most of the pupils at German schools abroad come from the host countries. Many go on to attend German universities and retain links to Germany in their future careers. This leads to networks on which foreign policy, exports and culture can be based. To exploit that potential to an even better extent, the German Government, via the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), has since 2001 offered full university scholarships to the best non-German school-leavers. Initial experience has shown that these young students are high-fliers in their chosen disciplines. This is in turn evidence of the high quality of German schools abroad.
The number of scholarship holders has now reached the 150 mark. In 2006 it was decided to extend the programme due to the participants' particularly high quality. For German firms the network of German schools abroad is a major factor in the secondment of staff and their families. The schools take this into account and, wherever possible, react to changes in political and economic priorities.
The German School in Shanghai is a good example of this development. Today 528 pupils attend the school, while 190 children attend the kindergarten and preschool sections. This means that the school has tripled in size within three years. The German School in Shanghai is now therefore the largest of its kind in Asia. In the autumn of 2002 the school governors decided to join forces with the French School to create a new "EuroCampus". In the summer of 2005 the two schools moved into a new building designed for 1400 pupils. The two schools financed this new building to a large extent themselves, at a cost of US$ 10 million each. The schools aim to merge their teaching, the final objective being the award of a joint school-leaving certificate.
German schools abroad – a public-private partnership
The system of German schools abroad is the oldest example of a future-looking public-private partnership. The schools are run by independent bodies. They raise much of their funding (on average 70% of the school budget) themselves through fees and donations. Some schools are also supported by their host countries.
The Federal Foreign Office is currently providing personnel and financial support to 117 German schools abroad (50 contact schools, 42 German-language schools, 23 host-country-language schools with enhanced teaching of German, and 2 independent vocational colleges) in 61 countries with 70,000 pupils, 53,000 of whom are non-Germans. Of these, 1100 teenagers are being prepared for commercial careers in technical and vocational colleges using the German dual system. A total of 1900 German teachers are currently on secondment to the supported schools. This is in addition to around 5700 locally-employed teachers. In 2006 these schools were supported from the schools fund to the tune of 125 million euro. Around 9.6 million euro in additional finance was provided from the construction fund for necessary school building works. Thus the German schools abroad take up one of the largest shares in the cultural relations and education policy budget.
Another 194,000 pupils are taught in German in 428 foreign schools and a total of around 21,000 German language and school-leaving exams are carried out there. Each year 4500 schoolchildren take part in exchange projects organized by German schools abroad.
German teachers are seconded to foreign schools, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS states, reaching another 194,000 children in 428 schools, thus bringing the total to 264,000 pupils. These secondment programmes play a significant role in ensuring that German-language teaching now has a stable position, especially in the CEE/CIS schools. Selected, mainly state schools with enhanced German-language teaching can offer school-leavers the Stage II German Language Diploma awarded by the Standing Conference of German Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK); this diploma is sufficient proof of German-language skills for university-level education in Germany.
