Definition
A school year is the time span of one year to move from one class to the next. Towards the end of the summer, the school year begins and ends with the big summer vacations. In Germany, the date of the beginning and end of a school year depends on the federal state.
Within the school year there are vacations (autumn vacations, Christmas vacations, etc. ), which vary in length from state to state and take place at different times. Usually the school year is divided into two parts, the first half of the year and the second half.
At a regular school, students receive the semi-annual report after the first semester and a report for the entire year at the end of the school year. In Germany, the new school year always begins after the summer vacations. Accordingly, the question arises as to who determines the dates of the summer vacations.
The Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs regulates the dates for the summer vacations in the federal states throughout Germany and thus also when a school year begins and when it ends. In Germany, the school year ends with the last day of school before the summer vacations. The summer vacation date is therefore decisive for the end of the school year.
The summer vacations are determined by the Conference of Ministers of Culture. Our next article may also be of interest to you: School FearThe school vacations in the individual German states are always based on the summer vacations in Germany. These are decided by the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs.
Experts from the federal states plan the summer vacation regulations and present a concept to the Conference of Ministers of Education, which then determines the summer vacation several years in advance. Once the dates for the summer vacations have been set by the federal states, they are allowed to plan their own small vacations, such as at Easter, on their own initiative. The summer vacations begin and end differently in the different federal states, which means that the “small” vacations always take place on different dates.
These are arranged in such a way that there is always a sensible rhythm of lessons and recreation. The complete vacation planning depends on the dates of the summer vacations, these are allocated by the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs according to the following principle: Only Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are an exception to this rule in that their summer vacations begin and end at the same time every year.
- All states are to have at least six weeks’ vacation, whereby all 16 states are divided into five groups that are geographically close together. These get vacations at the same time, because they are economically linked.
- The dates of the vacations do not fall on the same day every year, it is a rotating system. If one group of countries starts in one year, another group follows in the next year.
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