POLYTECHNICAL EDUCATION OR WORK EXPERIENCE IN GENERAL HIGH SCHOOLS
11. The 10-form general polytechnical high school is the standard type of school in the German Democratic Republic. It guarantees all children a comprehensive general education, meeting the demands of modern socialist society. Every year, on Ist September, all those children, whose sixth birthday falls on or before May 31,are admitted to the general high school. The number of schools, classes and enrolement in 10-form general polytechnical secondary schools for the years 1955, 1961 and 1967 is given in Table 1.
TABLE 1 General Polytechnical Secondary Schools Number, Classes and
Enrolment.
Years
1955 1961 1967
1 2 3 4
Schools 9,961 8,897 7,484
Classes 62,288 72,181 85,132
Enrolment 172,350 2,025,991 2,339,204
The number of institutions has been decreasing because of the fact that uneconomic single-teacher schools (one-class schools) are being reduced and central schools set up. In 1945, there were 4114 one-class schools and their number has been systematically reduced and for the last five or six years there is not a single one-class school.
12. The weekly time-table for 10-form general polytechnical high schools is given in Table 2.
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13. As shown in Table 2, the G.D.R. School system is in three grades : lower grade from Form I to Form III, middle grade from Form IV to Form VI and upper grade from Form VII to Form X. A start is made in the middle grades with specialised lessons in the natural sciences, social sciences and foreign languages. Specialisation of subjects starts in Form V with history, geography, Russian and biology, and as from Form VI is increased to include physics. In Form VII, chemistry is introduced into the curriculum so that from this time on, all subjects of the natural sciences are taught. Further, production process, technical drawing are introduced.
14. Polytechnical education is given in a systematically built up course which extends from the first form as handicraft and gardening to the tenth form of the general polytechnical high school. The law on the Integrated Socialist Educational System, passed in 1965, refers to the objectives of polytechnical education in the three grades of 10-Class General Polytechnical Secondary Schools. The following are the relevant extracts from the law relating to poly- technical education which may be of interest.
Lower Grade : "In manual training and school garden instruction in the lower level elementary technical, technological and economic knowledge is to be given and simple technical-design abilities and work skills are to be developed. The pupils receive a first survey of the economy of their home region."
Middle Grade: "In manual training and school garden instruction in simple technical, agrobiological and economic know- ledge is to be imparted, and abilities to think economically are to be developed. Technical thinking is to be
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promoted; technical and technological facts are increas- ingly to be penetrated mathematically and scientifically. Basic abilities are to be further developed."
Upper Grade : "In polytechnical instruction the pupils are to be systematically acquainted with the scientific-technical, technological and political-economic foundations of socialist production. The practical activity is increasingly oriented on the attendance of modern machines, installations and devices.
"Polytechnical instruction takes place in socialist enterprises. In classes 9 and 10 the pupils are given a vocational preparatory polytechnical training or a basic vocational training. The socialist attitude towards labour is to be especially developed through close contacts between the pupils and the teams of working people and through the independent, responsible carrying through of production tasks."
These are the general guidelines and an attempt is made to give practical shape to these objectives while framing courses of studies and enrolling teaching methods.
15. Students receive polytechnical instruction in enterprises of the most varied branches of the national economy as, for example, the electrical industry, the chemical and building industries and in agriculture. Where schools are not in close proximity to enterprises, polytechnical centres or cabinets are set up to provide practical instructions to students. Models, machines and books, tables and devices for performing experiments, apparatus for measuring and checking electro-technical processes, work branches for various exer- cises, switch boards and test stands, and other equipment are available in those cabinets which are installed by the enterprises. The equipment is determined on the basis of
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the unified and binding requirements of State curricula. In addition, the technical equipment of polytechnical cabinets is influenced by the specific interest of the enterprise. In these cabinets, pupils learn and work, and they are also prepared for their productive work. The other part of polytechnical instruction is the students' productive activity.
Work Experience in Lower Grades 16. In Forms I to VI, children acquire polytechnical knowledge and skills in the handicraft lessons and through work in the school garden. Handicraft lessons are given in class-rooms specially equipped for the purpose. One of the first things the child learns is how to measure objects and make first sketches with the help of a ruler and a model first. Children acquire the first technical and constructive skills and manual dexterity, particularly in wood and metalwork and in the handling of plastics. An elementary knowledge of tools and their uses is also taught. Children soon come to recognise that the correct use of tools, together with an exact knowledge of the structure and the properties of the material to be worked, improve the resultant work, In this manner, their understanding of things technical is increased step by step. A clean, technically faultless production of even the most simple of objects is demanded in the handicrafts lessons. Working with technical building sets actually begins from the first form. They are given simple parts like flat strips, connecting pieces and angles and practise fundamental operations like screw coupling or basic constructions like overlappings etc. Progress is systematic and made according to teaching plan. The boys and girls learn how to work with different kinds of materials, i.e. paper, wood, plastics and metal.
17. Fourth, Fifth and Sixth formers spend 20 hours on studying the parts of a bicycle, but the major part of
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their practical instruction (nearly one third) is devoted to constructing technical and electrical models. Thus, children become acquainted with basic technical terms and acquire simple skills. The schools make pedagogic use of this interest. Technical thinking is developed systematically. Children are prepared thoroughly to handle the modern, highly developed technology later.
18. Learning gardening in the school garden is the second field covered by polytechnical instruction during the first six years. A garden gives broad scope to experimenting, observing plants, acquiring skills and learning in general. The children investigate the soil and cultivate it. They learn how to sow seeds and harvest crops. They observe how the seeds germinate and how the plants they cultivate grow. They compare different varieties, calculate yields experiment with fertilizers, observe the effect they have on plant growth and yields and try to breed new varieties. They can carry out a host of different tasks. Work in the school garden is carried out on the piece of land which is allocated to each school and which the children themselves cultivate. In doing this, they learn the basic essentials of gardening, they tend the plants, observe their periods of growth and receive knowledge of natural and artificial fertilization of the soil and of protecting plants from pests. They learn how to use gardening tools and are gradually introduced to the modern methods used in horticulture and farming. In rural districts, working in the school garden lays the foundation for later polytechnical instruction in the fields and stalls. The children's natural relations to the soil and farm work are thus deepened with the help of every day occurrences and their surroundings. All the plans drawn up for practical instruction in gardening take into account the children's age as well as their physical and mental development.
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Work Experience in Senior Grades 19. From Form VII onwards, a qualitative change is introduced into polytechnical education. Instruction to production is taught for the first time in Form VII. Children concerned are 12 and 13 years old. From now on they go either to a factory or to a farm once a week. There was already some experience before introducing polytechnical instruction. Apprentices were trained for all kinds of technical trades for a number of years. But the emphasis is on polytechnical and not on vocational training. The aim is not training for any individual vocation, but giving the children a many-sided technical foundation. Practising skills, teachings materials, the methods employed during instruction, indeed, the entire complex differs from the usual training of apprentices.
20. The subject called 'introduction to socialist production' is to acquaint the pupils with selected fields and subjects of technology, engineering, electrical engineering, controlling and regulation of technology and economics. These aspects of technological and economic knowledge are taught on the same basis in accordance with the requirements of the binding curriculum in all enterprises of industry and agriculture where pupils receive their polytechnical education. Pupils are made familiar with the dependence of production processes on the technical and economic demands made on the products. Pupils are to acquire knowledge of this kind through their own experience; and that is why teachers choose examples from the production of the enterprises or from the pupils' productive work.
21. In Forms VIII and IX, teaching is determined by machines and their elements, their technological application and their efficiency in the various branches of the national economy.
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22. In Form X, pupils acquire fundamental knowledge in the field of electrical engineering. As a result of hitherto polytechnical training and through mathematics and natural science instruction, students acquire Sufficient knowledge to understand, for instance, what the topic 'electrical engineering and its significance for the national economy' means. The students can understand why 'checking and measuring technology' is of high value in all branches of production in the national economy, and what scientific and technical foundations determine this new field.
23. Mechanical and electrical engineering have become independent polytechnical disciplines. Electrotechnical knowledge is needed not only in electrical apparatus construction and in installation. It is required in every productive activity. Hammers, pliers, files, planes, saws and shovels are still respectable tools though every trade now uses machines and technical devices which are driven, controlled or regulated electrically. And this feature is being further intensified, agriculture work is being industrialized and industry is being automated and penetrated by electronics.
24. As mentioned earlier, in order to conform to the varying conditions prevailing in different industrial and agricultural areas, differentiated basic courses have been worked out. For the industrial areas, these courses are divided into metalwork, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, agricultural processes. This differentiation allows for the territorial and enterprise-based conditions and requirement of the pupils' productive work.
25. In the metal work course, children are taught the basic knowledge and skills of metalwork, such as filing, bending, drilling, counter-boring, rivetting and thread-cutting. Children practise on work-pieces to be found in
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the production programme of the particular factory. As a rule, the course is held in the training workshops of a factory, because here the technical conditions exist for imparting the necessary knowledge and skills under the guidance of a qualified instructor or skilled worker. In this way, children get to know other metal working processes such as casting and forging etc; they are taken round other departments of the works.
26. In the mechanical engineering course, children are introduced to the most important elements of machines and to the construction of automobiles. This means that the course has to be held at different places of work. To this end, the class is split into groups which are allocated to the various work-places where, under the guidance of an experienced worker, they observe and help with the assembly and stripping-down of wheels, clutches, gear-boxes, axles, shafts, bearings, valves gaskets and so forth. Every six months, children move to a different work-place.
27. The electrical engineering course provides children with the elementary knowledge and skills of electrical engineering. They learn the principles of electric wiring, they carry out elementary testing on simple electrical apparatus, machines and circuits, help with the assembly and stripping down of electrical instruments and motors and also take over the servicing of electric motors.
28. In the agricultural processes course, children are taught to look after domestic animals, about modern soil tillage, planting, cultivation and harvesting of the most important crops. They also learn how to operate and service farming machinery and the indoor mechanised units. During the year 1952 to 1960, the farmers of the GDR organised cooperative farms on a voluntary basis. On these farms, large scale production methods are used. The
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work of the children on these farms is mostly organised in small work teams, which are under the guidance of experienced farmers or which are attached to the work teams of the adults.
29. The mechanical engineering course teaches the children the operation and repair of machines and also about their method of manufacture. They learn the construction and function of the most important machine tools and how to operate at least two of these machines under the guidance and supervision of a skilled worker. Thus they become acquainted with the various processes of production and their utility. The basic polytechnical course in the farming areas is, in principle, built up in the same manner. Here though the stage dealing with agricultural production is increased with regard to content and time, the mechanical engineering course is somewhat reduced.
30. What is important is that, together with the three hours spent every week in studying general technical principles, the children are also taught to understand the scientific-technical, political and economic fundamentals of the socialist production process during the lesson devoted to this subject. These lessons help the children to systematise, generalise and extend the many experiences and knowledge gained during their productive activities. Children receive an elementary insight into the economy and technology of the main branches of industry of the GDR, their importance to the national economy as a whole, and their structure. These lessons are also held in the factory and are often given by leading executives, economists and engineers.
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