Private schools take off in Germany

When most German pupils are leaving school for the day, students at Rhine Main International Montessori School (Rims) are getting a crash course in English.

That's just one aspect that sets the private school apart from its publicly funded counterparts. Not only do the children have daily English classes; they stay well past midday to participate in drama and sports. For this amount of coaching, parents spend $500 a month, unusual in egalitarian Germany.

"This is the best money you can invest," says Christina von Busse, who hopes to send her two toddlers to the school. "People want a way out of the public system, and Rims is a great way out."

Unlike many countries in the world, Germany has little tradition of private schools. In part because the state set high standards for public schools and the constitution has strict guidelines governing private schools, Germans have tended to view education as a state responsibility. But with an international study in 2000 ranking Germany's prized educational system among the bottom third of industrial nations, parents have become much more open to the private school option.

"There's a breakthrough in mentality. People are not seeing education as a state prerogative anymore," says Lothar Ungerer, the mayor of a town of 20,000 in the former East Germany, which this year replaced a public high school with a private one. "People seem to be saying, 'If I spend money for my child, I'll get quality in return.' And seeing the quality seems to be making people more open."

Since 1995, the number of pupils attending private schools in Germany has climbed 61 percent for primary schools and 25 percent overall, according to German government statistics. And although private schools still only account for only 6 percent of all schools - compared with 60 percent in Belgium, 30 percent in Spain, and 25 percent in France - as many as a quarter of German parents would opt for a private school if one were available to them, says Christian Lucas, president of the German Association of Private Schools in Frankfurt.

"The real boom of private schools happens in the waiting list," Mr. Lucas says. "Helplessness is fueling this growth," says Ingrid von Walderdorff, director of the year-old Rims. She points to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which in 2000 ranked Germany 22nd, 21st, and 21st in reading, math, and science respectively - well behind Britain, Japan, and much of Continental Europe. In the next PISA study, in 2003, Germany did slightly better.

In Berlin, Yvonne Wende's resolve to find an elementary school for her daughter was strengthened by German's poor PISA results. Most public schools that Ms. Wende saw, she felt, wouldn't prepare her daughter for today's global economy.

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