German Schools and Spanish Schools

By Leon Buengel and Rut López

We are two students from the secondary school. One of us is a German student who is doing his exchange and the other is a Spanish student. Here we explain the main differences between German and Spanish secondary schools.

In Spain, students go to school from 8 am to 5.15 pm, and for this reason they cannot do many after-school activities, such as sports, and they cannot do so much homework. In Germany, school begins at 7.50 am and normally ends at 1.30 pm, although students sometimes stay in school until 4 pm; so they have time for other activities after school and they have time to do homework.

Furthermore, students get a computer too early in Spain and they use it for too many hours. First, they have seven hours at school plus the break, when they can be connected to the Internet. After they arrive home they play computer games and the like. In Germany, students need to have a computer, because very often they work with them at school, but after school they are not on Facebook or playing computer games, and they go out with their friends or play sports. And, after these activities, they study for school to get good grades.

The main difference between the Spanish school system and the German one is the number of hours dedicated to each subject.

German students have 5 hours of Maths per week; Spanish ones only have 3.

In Spain, every autonomous region has 3 hours of Spanish and 3 hours of their local language. In Germany there are only 5 hours of German.

In Germany, students are very good at English, because they study English 5 hours per week at school. In Spain, they only have 3 hours per week.

In Germany, they dedicate more hours to the various subjects. For example, in Germany History and Geography, Physics and Chemistry and Biology and Geology are studied for 4 hours, in Spain for just 3.

Year 2010 Selectivity in Catalonia

By Nina Vanishvili

In Catalonia 94.4% of students passed their Selectivity exams in the first year of the LOE. It is the highest percentage ever in these admittance tests to the university. The average mark was 6.2, also higher than last year.

Out of a total of 24.244 students, 18,140 were from Barcelona, 2,378 from Girona, 2,198 from Tarragona and 1,454 from Lleida.

There were lower marks in Catalan language and literature than in Spanish language and literature, compared to those of last year, and in English the results were more or less the same: very poor.

Education in China and Catalonia
By Rong-Xiu Wu & Xiao Wei Chi

The education is harder in China, because Chinese students have 40 classes every week. The day begins in the schools with a class where students study by themselves. They start classes at 7:00am and finish at 5:00pm. They have 5 classes in the morning, and 3 classes in the afternoon. Every class lasts 40 minutes, and there are 10 minutes for relax after each class. From 11:45am to 2:15pm is the time for lunch. Every day students have the most important subjects: Chinese, English and Maths. The other subjects have a minimum of two classes every week. They have to do their homework every day. Chinese students only have Chinese New Year's holidays and summer holidays, 245 days of year they're at school. In China we have 3 years of secondary school and 3 years of high school (A levels in Great Britain and Batxillerat in Spain).

The education in Catalonia compared to China is more relaxed. Here we don't have a lot of homework, teachers aren't strict compared to China and there is more freedom regarding to clothes too.
In Catalonia classes start at 8.15am and finish at 5.15pm. Here we have 4 years of secondary and 2 years of high school or Batxillerat and, furthermore, long holidays.