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.