398 EMMANUEL DROIT AND WILFRIED RUDLOFF
Educational Expansion and the Coordination of
the Educational and Employment Systems
The enormous increase in educational participation, which both German
states experienced at diff erent phases, was one of the most substantial
aspects of social transformation after 1949. In both countries, the stan-
dard shifted from general basic education to an intermediate-level di-
ploma, which meant that the majority of pupils no longer completed just
the basic Hauptschule curriculum, but rather went a step above the old
standard. This process took place in the West through the expansion of
secondary schooling within the traditional three-tiered system, while it
evolved in the GDR as part of the introduction of the standard Polytech-
nische Oberschule (POS, akin to a polytechnic high school). Strikingly,
however, despite this similar expansion of participation, these develop-
ments took place in diff erent phases.^12 Whereas more than a few West
German observers noted that the GDR was pulling ahead in the 1960s in
equal opportunity and transparency, as well as the reform of rural schools
and the mobilization of talent reserves, this trend seemed poised to re-
verse at the beginning of the 1970s: as the expansion of the universities
stopped abruptly in the GDR, resulting in a freeze on the quota for Abi-
turienten (those seeking to pass the Abitur and thereby gain access to a
university education), participation began to take an upswing in West
Germany, which was refl ected by the increasing number of successful
Abitur exams and students at the universities. These numbers continued
to climb in West Germany, despite the considerable changes to the gen-
eral situation brought about by a decrease in the birth rate, tight budgets,
and a worsening crisis on the job market.
Moreover, this expansion of educational participation in the Federal
Republic was refl ected in the enrollment and graduation fi gures for the
diff erent schools. In 1960, 27 percent of West Germans left school with
at least a mid-level diploma. By 1980, this number had doubled to about
56.2 percent of school graduates; in 1987, two-thirds of graduates had at
least acquired an intermediate school leaving certifi cate.^13 However, the
upward trend in pupils attending Realschule and gaining these interme-
diate diplomas that had begun in the 1950s began to fl atten out consid-
erably in the 1980s. The number of pupils opting for the Gymnasium and
completing the Abitur, in contrast, continued to climb: As of 1960, only 6
percent of a respective age cohort completed the Abitur, but by 1990, this
fi gure jumped to 24 percent (plus 9 percent who graduated with a techni-
cal school diploma, or Fachhochschulreife).^14 Admittedly, the loosening of
the selection process restrictions most likely contributed to the growing
number of pupils who enrolled in the secondary schools. On the whole,