Abitur after twelve years

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Abitur after twelve years, or Gymnasium in eight years (often abbreviated as G8 or G 8; often mentioned Turbo-Abitur or Turbo-Abi in the German media) describes the reduction from the duration in the Gymnasium from nine to eight school years in a lot of States of Germany. In the States Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the reduction took place from seven to six years because, there, primary education goes until grade 6. The principal argument for the reduction are the comparatively long times for vocational education in Germany.

In Eastern Germany it is, however, already a long established norm to take the Abitur after twelve years.^[1]

State	Abitur after twelve years	First (double) Abitur-year
Baden-Württemberg	yes	2006 (in schools with pilote project), 2012
Bavaria	yes	2011
Berlin	yes	2012
Brandenburg	yes	2009 (in schools with pilot project), 2012 (reintroduction)
Bremen	yes	2008
Hamburg	yes	2010
Hesse	yes	2013
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	yes	2008 (reintroduction)
Lower Saxony	yes	2011
North Rhine-Westphalia	yes	2013
Rhineland-Palatinate	yes, from school year 2008/2009 (in full-time schools in pilot project)	2016
Saarland	yes	2009
Saxony	yes	since beginning
Saxony-Anhalt	yes	2007 (reintroduction)
Schleswig-Holstein	yes, from school year 2008/2009	2016
Thuringia	yes	since beginning

[edit] Criticism

In part, parents’, teachers’ and students’ organizations express violent criticism, exclusive from the Western States of Germany.^[2] In spite of the removal of one school year, all contents of the, now thirteen, school years are arranged. This means that the school timetable is enlarged and that the students have to be at school for fifty hours a week.