ABSTRACT
The population of the former GDR was in fact well educated and well qualified. Weishaupt and Zedler9 quote figures showing that whereas in 1992 19.5 per cent of west Germans had no formal qualification, this was the case for only 7.3 per cent of east Germans. However, access to higher education was very restricted, and the biggest hurdle in the selection process came at school, not, as one might suppose, after the Abitur, but after the eighth year when college-preparatory classes (Erweiterte Oberschule (EOS)) began (from 1983/84 onwards this changed to after the tenth year). The admissions quota for the EOS was usually about 16 per cent – about three pupils per class – and the wastage rate allowed was small: all but 10-20 per cent were expected to proceed to higher education.10 The academic filter for higher education thus occurred very early in the average child's life, and political considerations played a large role in this process. Negative discrimination prevailed against those – like the children of clergymen – who dissented from the party's ideology. To their credit, GDR schools excelled at maximising the achievements of average and less able students and for this purpose they had a whole series of stratagems such as peer tutoring, home visits and voluntary out-of-school lessons by dedicated teachers. There was, however, a widespread perception that the most able pupils were not being given a fair deal, and were disadvantaged in the undifferentiated, all-ability schools of the GDR {Einheitsschulen). After the Wende, the reform demands of the east Germans therefore centred around calls for increased access to higher education, a depoliticisation of selection procedures, and a concern to cultivate the talents of bright children as fully as possible.
