By JIM TESTER __ In this series of articles I have ; Indicated the apprenticeship sys- tem in the German Democratic Republic flows out of the educa- - tional system. The question is, | “How do they do it?” | _In the polytechnical side of _ their 10-year school there is a un- | que division of labor. Boys and || &irls in the Grades 7 to 10 spend a || day a week in classes and shops Provided by an industry or farm. ne ment is responsible for __ the facilities and teachers. There 1S an intimate link between local _ Schools and local enterprises. _ _ The government’s Ministry of Education assists with the fund- Ing. They also lay down strict Standards for the type of equip- _ Ment used and the skills that are Mparted from student production Of useful articles, usually con- __ Sumer goods. It is no hit-and-miss Telationship. The Ministry of _ 4ducation maintains constant in- | SP€ction. : | The only compulsory educa- | tion in the GDR is the 10-year | . Polytechnical sthool. The pre- School nursery and kindergarten Schools are voluntary, as are the | Pprenticeship, college and uni- | Yersity courses of study. How- | €vVer, on graduating from the 10- year school, less than 1% decide 0 g0 to work as unskilled work- rs. (Most of those who quit | School at this stage have home or | Personal problems.) About 85% of the 10-year School graduates take up an ap- | Prenticeship in one of the 225 | ‘ades that are available to them. The balance continue to Grade 12 and matriculation, or go to special ‘olleges for teachers, nurses, ar- lists etc. ae 4 One thing stands out — all GDR } Youth have learned how to-work. | Most have skilled worker certi- } ficates before they are twenty. By n, they are working at their Chosen trade for trade union rates Of pay, ¢: It is no accident that almost €verybody continues beyond the 10-year school. Educated work- | ©fSare not only highly valuéd and tter paid by their socialist socie- YY, but they also enjoy con- th The daily press reports the Interna- Sa Monetary Fund predicting that Conomic problems in industrialized DR APPRENTICESHIPS No hit-and-miss relationship . Frank Cislenska is of remote Seventh in a Series siderable prestige. As a rein- forcement, the law of the land provides that not only is every youngster guaranteed the right to an apprenticeship, but everyone has a social duty to learn a trade or profession. Does the Ministry of Education supervise the apprenticeship sys- tem? No, it does not. True, most industries and farm communities provide both polytechnical and apprentice shops, but they are operated independently of one another. Each has its own courses of study and work; each its own personnel. The State Secretariat of Voca- tional Training is responsible for apprenticeship training in the GDR. This special government body administers well-defined apprenticeship standards for each trade. Its staff of vocational train- ing experts, usually master trades people with teaching experience, work in close cooperation with industry and farm management. They regularly inspect shop and classroom facilities, ensuring that minimum standards are met in the teaching of the practical and theoretical content of each trade. As a further check, each trade has an advisory committee com- posed of educator, trade unionist, government, youth and manage- ment leaders. These advisory committees have training content and methods of training under constant review, making sure the apprenticeship program is kept in tune with new materials and equipment. How well does it work in prac- tice? Surprisingly flexible and ef- ficient. From the many I noted, space only permits one example. This was an ‘‘unofficial’’ inter- view with a young metal miner, 19-year old Frank Cislenska. I talked to hinyin the ancient town of Heldrungen, whose main claim to fame is a medieval castle, which was the stronghold of the copper barons who ruled the Mansfeld company with an iron hand. : Tall, blond, strong and alert, added that the finance minister is a Polish origin. Orphaned at an early age, his school record was far from impressive, but he was accepted by the apprentice school for miners at the Thomas Munt- zer Mine in nearby Sangerhausen. Along with nearly 500 other boys, he took a 2-year apprenticeship to be a miner. He boarded at one of the two hostels which accomodate 230 ap- prentices. I saw the playing fields, classrooms, dining hall and living quarters that form a well-knit complex, adjacent to the mine that employs 2,500 workers. The ore-body at Sangerhausen lies almost horizontally. Only 12 to 18 inches thick, it is in a shale formation at a depth of 2,000 to 3,000 feet. With a copper content that only runs from 2 to 3%, the ore also contains other metals such as gold, silver and molydenum. But it is tough min- ing by any standards. A section of the mine has been set aside for apprentice training. One master miner looks after two or three apprentices, depending on the operation being taught. In- struction is given in all the basics of mining, such as drilling, slush- ing, timbering, surveying and mechanical repairs. Mining apprentices not only sreecine gee 4 GDR apprenticeship programs not only train industrial workers, but includes the service sector as well. These future daycare workers are being introduced to problems of embryonic development. learn the theories of mining and geology, but also basic elec- tronics, electrical controls and mechanical maintenance. These are taught in classroom sessions of two-weeks duration, which preceed two-week underground work periods. The last six months of a mining apprenticeship are spent in the mine, where the ap- prentice is assigned to a work- team, alongside skilled miners. Frank Cislenska is now a certi- fied miner. He earns about 1,300 marks per month, which is about the same as most medical doc- tors! However, he has higher am- bitions. He is studying to become a ‘‘hewer.”’ He is taking an 18- month course in a classroom at the mine, after shift, for a total of eight hours per week instruction, plus homework. When he com- pletes that course, he plans on studying to be and ‘‘explosives master.” This is a 6month, after-work course. When he completes these studies he will be a ‘‘master miner.’ He will be qualified to be a team leader, shift boss or ap- prentice teacher. His wages will rise accordingly. His future as a leader among skilled workers is assured. That’s how they do it. Last in the series Event raises $6,500 Edmonton meet backs Nicaragua Over $6,500 was raised for the people of Nicaragua in Edmonton Sept. 6-8, in a tremendous display of solidarity. Speaking at a benefit Sept. 8 to over 700 people, the — Nicaraguan charge-d’affaires in Canada, Pastor Valle-Garay, said “‘T was told when I came here that this is a very conservative place, but this benefit tonight is one of the largest events in solidarity with Nicaragua which has been held in Canada.” Valle-Garay arrived in Edmon- ton Sept. 6, to speak at a public meeting and show the award- winning and documentary ‘‘Free Homeland or Death’’, which de- picts the Sandinista struggle to overthrow Somoza. As Valle- Garay pointed out to the 200 in attendance at the meeting, the de- struction of his country* became much worse after the film. Somoza’s decision to bomb his own cities completed the devasta- tion of the country, which now faces starvation and an enormous rebuilding . job. The new Nicaragua, Valle-Garay said, is determined to decide its own fu- ture without imperialist inter-, ference, but the United States in particular has a duty to provide aid after propping up the Somoza dynasty for decades. Speaking to the overflow crowd at the Ukrainian Centre on Sept. 8, Valle-Garay again emphasized the desperate ‘situation in ’ Nicaragua: Six-hundred tons of food per day are needed for the © population of 2.5 million, but cur- rently only 80 tons are arriving. He thanked the Canadian trade union ‘movement, the Chileans in exile here dnd the other people active in the movement to support Nicaragua. In Edmonton the Committee for Peace and Recon- struction in Nicaraguaand the Chi- lean Community have been espe- cially active, and organised the two public events. ‘The capitalists’ dilemma Coop ~ Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World Well, we can assure Mr. Beigie that monopolies and the multi-nationals in the economy. The Clark Tory government has no | Only w, Sountries, including Canada, will get _ Worse before they get better’. The IMF Slates also: that ‘“‘there is little the aboemments of those countries can do yu it’’. ng Danaus Smart, chief economist at U Minion Securities Ltd., predicts the S.'to turn in only 1.25% real growth’ peat and might show no growth or ik tly negative (minus) growth in 1980. ie face of this he expects Canada will sligh have 2% growth this year and ne tly under one-half of one per cent _Sxt year, ; ee c As if to confirm this bleak outlook, ho S Finance Minister Crosbie does “theec, .2Y "substantial improvement in €conomy until at least 1981”. And the T Vay out, according to this hardline ~STY-is “to tough it out’’. ato: uglas Peters, vice-president of the ronto-Dominion Bank, applauds “te bie’s prescription as being the sonable”. Carl Beigie, president of Gis -D. Howe Research Institute is « 0l€d as saying that Mr. Crosbie has a . tic assessment of the situation. He ‘‘profound realist’’. And the previously mentioned Angus Smart describes Cros- bie’s approach as “‘very refreshing’ and ‘constructive’ ’. ~ * * * And who is expected to “tough it out’? You guessed it. None other than the working people, unemployed, pen- sioners, those on welfare and soon. The method: lower real wages and incomes, higher consumer prices, rent and housing costs, cutbacks in unemployment insur- e and welfare. at remained for Mr. Beigie of the C.D. Howe Institute to let the cat out of the bag. He voiced the real dilemma of the giant corporations and of capitalist governments. He wondered how Cana- dian workers would react to the tough line taken by U.S. and Canadian policy makers to meet the current recession following hard on the heels of the previ- ous one. He said workers ‘‘have sacri- ficed a fair amount in recent years in terms of real income and their anger could rise (our emphasis) if they are asked to make further sacrifices’ ’. * x * - _workers are already angry. We will go further and say that unless the present situation is remedied their anger will rise. The erosion of working people’s stan- dards is not an academic problem for © them. It is very real and is cruelly visible. The working people want change. They voted for change in the last federal elec- tion, including those who voted Tory. Unfortunately those who voted Tory were misled by the demagogy of Joe Clark and his campaign brain trust who were able to twist a genuine desire for change into reactionary channels. Instead of change for the better Cana- dian workers are getting much, much more of the same meet-the-crisis ‘*medicine’’ that the Trudeau Liberal government was dishing out before the election last May. i %: * * ; The Clark goverment is following a policy of stepped up give-aways to the corporations at the expense of the well- being of the people. This is part of the _ policy of loading the cost of the economic crisis onto the backs of the workers, — while strengthening the positions of the economic program to put Canada back to work. Its main aim is to cheapen the cost of labor power to the monopolists, the multi-nationals and the corporate financial interests. This they hope to ac- complish by lengthening the lines of the jobless as a lever to cut wages, and by letting prices and living costs ‘‘float’’ upwards at an ever-ascending spiral as a lever to undermine living standards. * * * The working people have already served notice that they reject Crosbie’s ‘tough it out’’ philosophy. The Inco strike is perhaps the best example of this rejection. It is likewise a striking illustra- ~ tion of the determination of the working people to improve their standards of work and living. | Despite all efforts of the ruling class to frighten and brainwash the working people, the very reality of capitalist exploitation will inevitably strengthen anti-capitalist sentiments in the working class. And, as a result the working class will fight ever more vigorously for its interests. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 28, 1979—Page 5 | | | 1 | 7 |