Education in East Germany was a high priority for the communist government, and was compulsory from age six to age sixteen. GDR redirects here. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ...

There were state run crèches, kindergartens, polytechnical schools, vocational training and universities. Day care is the care of a child during the day by a person other than the childs parents or legal guardians, often someone outside the childs immediate family. ... A kindergarten in Afghanistan. ... A blacksmith is a traditional trade. ... Western Illinois University A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. ...

Crèches

As almost all East German parents (85%) worked outside of the home, there was a significant need for adequate childcare services. East German crèches were for children up to age three. Look up crèche in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Home is a place where a person lives, perhaps spends much of the time, or where a person is comfortable to be. ... It has been suggested that baby care be merged into this article or section. ...

As many of these crèches were built during the post-war period, when many new buildings were constructed in East Germany, they were often incorporated into residential blocks so parents could pick their children up and need not travel far home. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

Many factories and collective farms also had their own crèches. A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is a large industrial building where workers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. ... Collective farming is an organizational unit in agriculture in which peasants are not paid wages, but rather receive a share of the farms net output. ...

There were enough places in the crèches for 58% of East German children to attend. A child (plural: children) is a young human. ...

Kindergartens

East German kindergartens, as with others around the world, acted as a chance for children from age three to six to learn to interact with other children and get used to the idea of learning. A kindergarten in Afghanistan. ... A supervised child learning the countries of Asia on the floor of the central hall of the Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values, through study, experience, or teaching, that causes a change of behavior that is persistent, measurable, and specified or...

Children were also encouraged to take an active role in the running of their kindergartens. Children often served each other meals and helped keep the kindergarten clean and tidy. For the coarsely ground flour, see flour. ...

There were enough places in kindergartens for 94% of East German children to attend.

Polytechnical Schools

The East German equivalent of the primary school and high school was the ten-year polytechnical school, for children six to sixteen. Primary or elementary education is the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childhood. ... High school - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Polytechnical schools focused strongly on science and mathematics, and until the tenth year there was little opportunity to deviate from either of these. The East German government considered these two subjects to be of key importance to a fast growing, industrial country like East Germany. The scope of this article is limited to the empirical sciences. ... Euclid, detail from The School of Athens by Raphael. ...

Special emphasis was also placed on learning Russian, as the GDR was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. A majority of students had little motivation for this subject, and achievements were generally poor; few students reached fluency. In spite of the state-proclaimed friendship with the USSR, there were few opportunities for student exchanges and for experiencing the pleasure of communicating in the other's language.

From the seventh year onwards, students visited a factory or a farm one day per week, depending on their location. At either of these places, the student would work alongside regular employees.

There were annual championships on various subjects with the winners receiving prizes. The Russian language and mathematics championships were very prestigious and competitive. A prize is an award given to a person or a group of people to recognise and reward actions or achievements. ... Prestige means good reputation or high esteem, although it originally meant a delusion or magicians trick (Latin præstigum). ... Competition is the act of striving against another force for the purpose of achieving dominance or attaining a reward or goal, or out of a biological imperative such as survival. ...

Vocational Training

After the tenth year of polytechnical school, a student could either end his education or continue on to two years of vocational training in a specialised subject such as building, telecommunications or electronics. Building is either the act of creating an object assembled from more than one element, or the object itself; see also construction. ... Telecommunication involves the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... The field of electronics is the study and use of systems that operate by controlling the flow of electrons (or other charge carriers) in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. ...

Vocational training was split in practical work and theoretical learning which focused both on the studied subject of career.

The student was then integrated in a collective farm or in a factory, depending on what he wished to do for a career. The vocational training took place either in the students home town but often in another city. Students lived there in an Internat(bording school). In most cases that was the first time in the young persons life they lived "independent" from their parents home for one or two years. The students where allowed to visit home on the weekends. Look up Career in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

At the end of vocational training, a student could take the Abitur (similar to the A-level in England), and if he passed, go on to university or a specialised technological school. But in most cases the student worked in a factory or in the field of his or her vocational training subject. Abitur (from Latin abire=go away, go off) is the word commonly used in Germany for the final exams young adults (aged 18 or 19) take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling. ... An A-level, short for Advanced Level, is a General Certificate of Education usually taken during Further Education and after GCSEs. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a level of technological mastery sufficient to leave the surface of the planet for the first time and explore space. ...

Universities

East German universities were very closely linked to both schools and to industry.

Mostly focused on technical education, these universities were highly regarded all over the world to be of a very high standard.

There were two ways to get into a university: continuing straight on from vocational training, or, for those who did not choose to continue past polytechnical school, there was a choice of entering university several years afterwards, through night classes organised by many large firms.

Reference

One Europe: East Germany by Sylvia Löf, Ingrid Mållberg and Dietrich Rosenthal, ISBN 0-582-22168-4, published by Longman Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... The International Standard Book Number, or ISBN (sometimes pronounced is-ben), is a unique identifier for books, intended to be used commercially. ... Longman is a firm of English publishers. ...