Education Studies | School Privatization in Germany

Running head: EDUCATION STUDIES
EDUCATION STUDIES
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Introduction
The German education system executes its functions as per the guidelines and
standards under the Basic law ‘Grundgesetz”. Furthermore, the Federal Ministries of
Education along with Cultural Affair and Science are recognized as the primary ability for
establishing education, knowledge as well as skills, policy strategies and also for accepting
associated regulations and administrative principles (Rooks 2017). Furthermore, all forms of
responsibility vis-à-vis educational issues in Germany are shared between the Länders as well
as the Federation which serves a minor role. However, there can be witnessed certain areas of
collaboration in education system which has led no difference between both the parts, hence
functioning as joint tasks” or “Gemeinschaftsaufgaben’. According to Wells and Scott
(2018), while being a largest nation in the European region, Germany has been encountering
current occurrences such as recurrent refugee crisis, the European sovereign debt emergency
and most importantly the Brexit. Nonetheless, even with these challenges, the government of
German has formed the internalization of higher education as a planned objective. One of the
core aspects of its education policy is its school privatization. In a wide range of European
nations, there is a rise in the number of students attending primary schools which are reserved
by private organizations and subsidized by the state. The core justification of selecting
German educational system is that state’s functioning in the delivery of welfare services has
been not been re-stated with privatized funders serving decisive role in school-based
education (Wilson 2016). The essay will focus on comparative analysis of education
Germany in England and Wales. The comparison will be done on Germany with England and
Wales as “marketization” and privatization policies in the latter nations have had a very
noteworthy impact on the manner in which the system is controlled as well as on the
character of education endowment. It has drawn greater level of attention as compared to
other developed countries in Europe. The main aim of the essay is to draw comparison of the

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expansion of school privatization between Germany (UN rated Very High Human
Development (VHHD) country and England and Wales. Historical, social and political
factors, theoretical understanding of Partisan, Power Resource Theory (PRT), policy agenda,
economic aspects, along with insights of organizational structure of other nations on school
privatization and egalitarian school structure are the themes which the essay will focus on.
Discussion
Comparative Analysis of Political factors linked to school privatization in Germany and
England and and Wales
Comparative political science study on private primary schools has focused on an
array of subjects and recognized a range of diverse theoretical standpoints. These standpoints
on one hand have been chiefly focusing on institutional guidelines and on the other hand
accentuating the partisan or biased politics. The effect of institutional guidelines has been
witnessed in Germany. According to Carnoy and McEwan (2018), introduction of receipts
and open school preferences have been linked to different institutional standards in support of
political judgements. In other words, the ability to establish reform has been more in Sweden
as compared to Germany. This is due to the highly concentrated political control which
depends significantly on the territory of the central government. Shuffelton (2015) have noted
that privatized education has also been putting emphasis on biased politics. While drawing
relevance to the historical aspect, it has been noted that in England and Wales, since the early
1990s, there has been a major rise in number of students engaging into privatized schools
which were wholly funded by government which were academies and free primary schools.
In Wales, the privatization of the communal sector involved the establishment of an
education and business interconnection in schooling. In such privatization, schools were
formed in occupational structure and prepared business organized. This privatization took
place under the succeeding Conservative government administrations directed initially by

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Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher as well as John Major in the era 1979 to 1997. Thus
directing a government as per neo-liberal spirits and goals, these presidencies carried a
forceful and single-minded systematic program of school privatization. Although the policy
outcomes have been impartial in relation to the expansion of school privatization, both
England and Wales and Germany showed differences in vital dimensions. Marginson (2016)
argue this differentiation occurred due to Germany being a federal state, with Berlin as well
as Brandenburg as individual states and on the other hand, England and Wales being a quasi-
federal state and serving as a constituent nation.
Furthermore, they have been at poles-apart positions on the left-right political range
and symbolized dissimilar education systems. Existent theories related to the institutional
structures and partisan government have been decisive in aiming to comprehend the
expansion of school privatization. Colodro-Conde et al. (2015) have found that in German
educational system, there has been witnessed greater number of institutional restrictions as
compared to England and Wales due to the former being a federal state. Meanwhile, in Wales
right parties created reforms even though left parties have strengthened the growth of school
privatization. The growth of primary school privatization has been linked to the associated
ideas which have shown disagreement amongst the left and the right. In Eastern Germany,
left parties supported school privatization to manage equality with other counties. This has
been considered as a vital policy goal after German reunion. Through this policy aim,
German educational system has gained the public financial support which earlier got declined
(Rooks 2017).
Financial contribution on school privatization in Germany and England and Wales
The financing of primary schools has been intricately associated with schools
supported by local authorities. Moreover, financial aid for school-based education has been
chiefly shared by central administration to local authorities by means of hypothecated