Einschulungstag - First Day for First Graders

This is the first day when Abecedarians are sent to schools to start their first formal education in Germany. Children are sent-off to their first day of classes with colorful Schultüte (school cones) accompanied by excited parents, grandparents and relatives or friends of the families. Schools try to cheer up the new arrivals by holding small welcome programs with songs, dances and theater pieces participated by other kids in higher grades. 

Below is short explanation of the German education system as posted in wikipedia.

First Grader with School Cone

The responsibility for the German education system lies primarily with the states (Länder) while the federal government plays only a minor role. Optional Kindergarten (nursery school) education is provided for all children between three and six years of age, after which school attendance is compulsory, in most cases for 11 to 12 years. The system varies throughout Germany because each state (Land) decides its own educational policies. Most children, however, first attend Grundschule from the age of six to ten or twelve.

A Multi-cultural Grade School

So heavy!

German secondary education  includes five types of school. The Gymnasium is designed to prepare pupils for university education and finishes with the final examination  Abitur, after grade 12 or 13. The Realschule  has a broader range of emphasis for intermediate pupils and finishes with the final examination Mittlere Reife,  after grade 10; the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education and finishes with the final examination Hauptschulabschluss, after grade 9 or 10 and the Realschulabschluss after grade 10. There are two types of grade 10: one is the higher level called type 10b and the lower level is called type 10a; only the higher level type 10b can lead to the Realschule and this finishes with the final examination Mittlere Reife after grade 10b. This new path of achieving the Realschulabschluss at a vocationally oriented secondary school was changed by the statutory school regulations in 1981 - with a one-year qualifying period. During the one-year qualifying period of the change to the new regulations, pupils could continue with class 10 to fulfil the statutory period of education. After 1982, the new path was compulsory, as explained above. Other than this, there is the Gesamtschule, which combines the approaches. There are also Förderschulen/Sonderschulen. One in 21 pupils attends a Förderschule.  Nevertheless the Förderschulen/Sonderschulen can also lead, in special circumstances, to a Hauptschulabschluss of both type 10a or type 10b, the latter of which is the Realschulabschluss. Most German children only attend school in the morning. There are usually no provision for serving lunch. The amount of extracurricular activities is determined individually by each school and varies greatly.
Many of Germany's hundred or so institutions of higher learning charge little or no tuition by international comparison. Students usually must prove through examinations that they are qualified.
In order to enter university, students are, as a rule, required to have passed the Abitur examination; since 2009, however, those with a Meisterbrief (master craftman's diploma) have also been able to apply. Those wishing to attend a "university of applied sciences" must, as a rule, have Abitur, Fachhochschulreife, or a Meisterbrief. Lacking those qualifications, pupils are eligible to enter a university or university of applied sciences if they can present additional proof that they will be able to keep up with their fellow students through a Begabtenprüfung or Hochbegabtenstudium. A special system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung allows pupils on vocational courses to do in-service training in a company as well as at a state school.

Two First Graders with Their Families

One father cheering up an anxious first grader

How many kilos to carry to school and back?

Watching the welcome program for them

The Welcome Committee Singing "All Children Are Learning How to Read"

It's a small, colorful, beautiful world we live in.

Oh-oh-oh, what are they singing?

A super school cone for a future footballer

Celebrating Abitur

Was shortly at the city today and got attracted to these
colorfully clad girls munching bread in front of this
huge bakery in Cologne. They seemed to be preparing
for something and I waited. Soon they were spreading
their Isomatten/mats. Screaming and whistling followed.
I found out that they were candidates for Abitur, the
school-leaving examinations for high school in Germany.
To celebrate their graduation or finishing school, they
planned to hold a five-day impromptu performances on the
shopping streets of Cologne.
Today was Fitness for fun. Asking some of
them if they have especial message or why they are doing
the instant shows, the answer was simply they want to have
fun. School is over. University life starts soon.

Eto na naman......English as Medium of Instruction

(Source of Photo: Copied from The History of the Burgis)

Taken from the Editorial of Daily Inquirer
on the debate about re-introducing English as medium
of instruction in Philippine schools.

King’s English

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:15:00 01/11/2009

Filed Under: Education, Language, Government, Laws
WHEN Congress resumes on Jan. 19, the House of Representatives is expected to be engulfed in a war of words—or languages—over the passage of House Bill 5619, the proposed Act Strengthening and Enhancing the Use of English as the Medium of Instruction. Authored by Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, the bill seeks to junk the bilingual policy adopted by the old education department in 1974, during the Marcos era. The policy sought to make the “nation competent in the use of English and Filipino.” Gullas’ measure seeks “the reinstatement of English as medium of instruction” in Philippine basic education.
It is easy to sympathize with Gullas; apparently, there are many who are ruing the Filipinos’ loss of English proficiency and they blame this on the bilingual policy. But it is one thing to lament the loss of our English proficiency, and another to dictate that it be made the medium of instruction in our schools.
To be sure, the state should be in the business of looking for the best way to effectively transmit knowledge in its education system. But studies across the board show that the mother tongue is the best conveyor of instruction.
To some extent, the Gullas bill recognizes the above. It gives schools the option to use English, Filipino or the regional language as the teaching language from pre-school up to Grade 3. But from the intermediate grades up to high school, English will be the teaching language, except in Filipino as a course.
Just the same, the bill’s “English myopia” is hegemonic, and overlooks scientific evidence showing the mother tongue to be the best medium of instruction. For example, a study showed that non-native American children who were schooled for six years in their first language, before they were taught completely in English, scored in their Science and Mathematics—as well as English—tests higher than the average native English pupil. In contrast, non-native English students who began education completely in English learned the least English and scored lowest in their academic subjects.
All these findings should show that no science or reason propels the campaign for the reinstitution of English as instruction language in our schools—except for that uniquely Filipino science-—hiya or loss of face, the reverse of which is another uniquely Filipino science—yabang or conceit. Perhaps confronted by Melanie Marquez and other Philippine beauty queens and pretenders who, during question-and-answer portions, add to the rich vocabulary of English by their unwitting and very hilarious answers; and perhaps feeling guilty and embarrassed because their children speak their yaya’s “Barok” English, some lawmakers now like to efface the atrocious English around them, including their own, by mandating that everyone speak the King’s English. But this gesture is at best aristocratic pretension.
At the least, Gullas et al. are driven by other considerations in seeking to restore English, but these considerations hardly have anything to do with hastening learning or the absorption of lessons by our students. They may have more to do with their distaste of the Tagalog-based Filipino and their resistance to Manila imperialism. (Filipino promoters may protest that Filipino is democratic and is drawn from all the major regional languages, not just Tagalog, but they should recognize that the suspicion against it by the provinces remains widespread. In any case, even Filipino promoters quarrel among themselves on which word or coinage to incorporate in the new vocabulary, and their Babel-like quarrel may take another eon to resolve.)
Gullas et al. also want English proficiency because of the global scheme of things, such as the decided advantage of Filipino manpower abroad due to their English know-how and the relative prestige accorded to nations that speak English. But since Filipinos get the lower end of skills in global manpower, what level of English proficiency should they really have? To be sure, many Filipina maids abroad can speak English even better than their masters.
In the end, even if Filipinos had indeed reached the nadir of English proficiency, it has nothing to do with the bilingual policy or the rise of the regional languages. It has more to do with the poor system of instruction: defective textbooks, poor language instructionals, poor (or total lack of) facilities, incompetent teachers and education planners, corruption and mismanagement. We may have English as the sole medium of instruction at all levels of education, but the Filipinos will continue to speak and write the most dreadful English as long as the system of instruction keeps submitting a hideous report card.
(Source:philippine daily inquirer)

Learning a new language is always an enrichment for and not
selling one's soul.


Maging mayaman sa pag-iisip, mag-aral ng salitang banyaga at
huwag kalimutan ang wikang kinagisnan, and wikang kinalakihan at
ginagamit sa pagkakaunawaan natin mga Pilipina o Pilipino kahit
saan ka man tubo sa bansang Pilipinas. Ang pinakamahalaga ay
nagkakaunawaan tayo sa ating mga sariling wika at pananalita.