Early Tracking in the German Educational System.

Germany previously had a three-track educational system that was initially established as part of the Weimar Constitution in 1919. In the 1960s, reformist calls to establish comprehensive middle schools in West Germany gained traction. However, comprehensive middle schools only occupied a marginal position in the German educational system. Amendments to the system were proposed in the 1964 Hamburg Agreement, which retained the three-track system but established a 2-year "orientation phase", delaying the tracking of students into separate academic and vocational paths. However, the German Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shock in 2000 led to the three-track system being harshly criticized, prompting every German state to simplify the system to two tracks and provide incentives for working people to enroll in higher education. This established a pathway to higher education for all, including those who had been tracked out when they were younger. Additionally, Germany made further reforms to vocational education, proposing an "additional qualification plan" to maintain pace with the demands of industrial development. Moreover, the Vocational Training Act was revised in 2020 to include advanced vocational education with degrees at three levels, making the value of vocational education comparable to traditional higher education. The early tracking in Germany's educational system has been widely criticized, with critics indicating it requires 10-year-old children to decide on their future career paths. However, this characterization is somewhat unfair: As is true in many other countries, parents usually make such decisions for their children, and the system includes streamlined provisions for transfers, with more than 30% of vocational students ultimately transferring to universities. Moreover, although Germans with a university degree typically have higher incomes than do those without, they fare no better than skilled workers with a vocational degree in terms of employment security and return on investment in education. Furthermore, although vocational students face obstacles when electing to pursue a university degree, the high quality of vocational education in Germany and the bright career prospects for vocational school graduates demonstrate the wisdom underlying the early tracking policy in German education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]