A Hauptschule (German: main school) is a German secondary school, starting after 6 or 4 years of elementary schooling, depending on the Bundesland in which they are located. They were first introduced in West Germany in 1950 and are now a part of secondary education in Germany, the others being the Gymnasium and the Realschule.
The main aim of the Hauptschule is to prepare young students for life and focus on practical matters, in contrast to the Gymnasium which concentrates on the more academic topics and wants to prepare its students for going to the university afterwards. As a result, the classes in the Hauptschule concentrate on the basics in mathematics, language (German, of course, and usually English as a foreign language) and common knowledge, and practical matters like how to find a job, how to work with a computer properly or how to cook. Any student who went to a German elementary school can go to a Hauptschule afterwards whereas students who want to attend a Realschule or Gymnasium need to have good marks in order to do so.
Students graduate from the Hauptschule after ninth grade. Depending on the Bundesland, they can qualify for further education in a Realschule or Gymnasium if their marks are good enough; if not, they can apply for professional job training. The jobs for which they apply consequently do require practical skills rather than academic knowledge.
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