GERMANY REGRETS WAR ON EDUCATION

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23745, 17 September 1942, Page 4

GERMANY REGRETS WAR ON EDUCATION

manpower problems

There were nearly 150,000 undergraduates in Germany m the years preceding the Nazi revolution, but in the summer term of 1939 only about 60.000 students were taking courses m German and Austrian universities and university colleges. The number of those taking degrees in engineering fell from an annual average of 2700 1929 and 1935 to about 1000 in each of the years 1938 and 1939; there was already a shortage of approximately 18,000 engineers, technicians and draughtsmen at the outbreak of war; and, according to Herr Rust, Reich Minister of Education, the continued shortage of engineers is a serious handicap to the war effort. The shortage in some other professions will be still more alarming in the long run: it has been calculated, for instance, that in 1950 the number of lawyers will be,too few by 40 to 50 per cent., and the number of teachers by 60 to 65 per cent., unless swift emergency measures are taken. It is interesting to note that, according to a recent decree, students, teachers, and apprentices are exempted from being called up for other labour duties. , , , XT . The declining birth-rate in pre-Nazi Germany would in itself have hardly caused a fall of more than 20 per cent, in the number of students. Certainly, the exclusion of Jews from the professions and from the universities, has contributed to the shortage of lawyers, but there was never a high percentage of Jews among the German teachers and engineers, and the shortage _ of doctors is so far the least serious, even though the Jews formerly formed an important part of the medical profession. The mam reason for the present difficulties is the lack of incentive for German boys and girls to choose a professional career. Professional men, with the possible exception of doctors and some other categories, were never well paid in Germany, and there are much better chances to get a good post without such a long qualifying period. There are now, for instance, 50 per cent, more industrial and commercial apprenticeship openings than applicants, whereas in 1934 only every third youth who wanted to become an apprentice was able to find a post. Moreover, the attitude of the Nazi Party and the Hitler Youth Movement towards “the intellectuals” has destroyed the traditional German esteem for intellectual work. The number of children attending secondary schools has been appreciably lowered, and 40 per cent, of all secondary school pupils leave _ school before taking their final examination. Moreover, almost half of those who took their final examinations in recent years have applied to become Service officers —it indicates the present demand for army officers that, despite .the large number of applicants, a shortage seems now to have arisen even in this profession and, according to a recent decree, all suitable n.c.o.’s are to be given quick promotion. By contrast, it • has been announced that, of those taking their final school examination in 1941, only about 25 per cent, were willing to study science, medicine, or engineering, and less than 2 per cent, wanted to register in the faculties of arts, law. or divinity; in any case, most of them have, of course, to wait until after the end of the war. The higher birth-rate between 1934 and 1939 cannot have any effect’on the supply of professional labour until late in the 1950’5. An obvious remedy for the shortage of professional people has been to shorten the courses of professional and general instruction. For in-

(Reprinted from “The Economist.*')

stance, the three upper forms of tht ! secondary schools have been conceit* trated to two forms only. The course • for an engineering degree has been .■] shortened from four to three years; th| : so-called technical medium colleges educate their students in two instead of two and a half years; and an ordi* nary practical apprenticeship in an ' engineering factory, which formerly took four years, has also been short* ened by six months. The education o! teachers ha? been even more reorga* nised; the total training of secondary. ' school teachers, formerly six year* M now takes only four years. The f of the measures has, however, -oee^ 3 <■ partly offset by the long terms of coms pulsory military and labour service which have been introduced in recent years. These measures have contributed to lowering the standard of knowledge and skill among the younger generation i of German students. That a serious deterioration has taken place is not disguised in the more responsible educational and general newspapers in Germany and it is sometimes even admitted that the frequent preoccupa* tion of young people with Hitler Youth and Party services takes much of their time from ordinary studies. Elementary schoolteachers are generally taken on by recommendation of the Hitler Youth rather than of the school authorities. It is interesting to note that even military observers have pointed out that i “it is impossible to wage a modern war i with uneducated people.” Owing to these difficulties, the Nazis ; have modified, to a small extent, their : attitude to the “inferior races.” Some , Jewish doctors are known to have been ordered to resume their professional activities. Since 1941, small numbers of Czech students have been re- ; admitted to medicine and engineering , courses in German universities. The Polish, universities remain closed, and all education given to Polish pupils must be either elementary or purely ■ technical; technical education now comprises special colleges—always run by German administrators—in which j courses are given in medicine, ! pharmacy, veterinary science, agriculture, engineering, etc., and vocational training has recently been made compulsory for all Polish boys. In occu- j pied Russia, some university college* in Kiev, Odessa, and Shitomir, have been reopened under the auspices of the occupation authorities to educate ; the Russians and Ukrainians in an antiBolshevist spirit. ’ • : ; The position is different in the occupied countries of western and northern Europe. In countries like Norway, l Belgium, and Holland, the Nazis are ■ prepared, in principle, to admit institutions of higher education, provided that they co-operate with the Reich. An in* ■ creasing number of students have actually registered in the universities of I all these countries since the invasion, in many cases obviously in order to i escape the necessity of doing slave work for the Nazis. Everywhere, how- j ever, this education has met with in- ‘ creasing difficulties since neither teachers nor pupils are prepared to submit to the Nazi New Order. The position was recently most critical in Norway, where the vast majority of the teachers, including university, secondary school, and elementary schoolteachers, have been dismissed or sent to concentration camps for not joining the Nazifled ’ teachers’ organisations. Two ‘famous universities of the Low Countries, In Brussels pnd Leyden, have also been closed because of their resistance to Nazism. ?■