German Education

* Re “It’s Exam Time for Germany’s Universities,” March 19:

Your reporter remarks that college education in Germany is free to any student who has graduated high school. What the article fails to explain is that German secondary education has distinct tracks. Most are work and training programs and only one is college-preparatory; that track ends at the equivalent of our AA degree. Admission to the universities follows only after passing the notoriously stiff Abitur, and believe me, not every student passes.

In any case, the German system is not intended to provide universal education, which used to be the goal of ours. Another reason that unhappy German students change majors rather than going out into the work force is that Germany tends to have more rigid class distinctions than our society. A student who leaves the university without graduating is regarded as a misfit.

KAREN GREENBAUM-MAYA

Claremont