The table of lessons determined the workload of a student, in other words the number of lessons which were taught on each subject every week.[1]
One lesson lasted 45 minutes.
Table of lessons 1971
The school reform in East Germany in 1965 with its new education act brought a lot of changes to the POS.
The compulsory subject Needlework was cancelled and transformed into an elective subject recommended for girls.
The successful concept of the school garden and its cultivation was established as a compulsory subject
to expand the agricultural elements, to directly prepare the subject Biology and to extend the time of being outside in touch with nature. Because of an in-depth revision of the curriculum - the contents of physical geography and earth sciences were reduced, the contents of economic geography and political geography were increased - Geography was not a strong scientific subject anymore and drifted to the subject group of languages, arts and sociological-political studies.
As the table shows, the number of lessons for one week was distinctly reduced in comparison to 1959. This measure led to vigorous criticism behind closed doors because the POS was initially designed as a further developed concept of the former German Realgymnasium. The tough compulsory workload, which exceeded the workload of any contemporary West German type of school by far, especially in German language, mathematics, sciences and technics, ensured a high academic achievement for all children. The Ministry of People's Education justified the controversial reduction as a reorientation of the curriculum focussing on the essentials and providing more freedom of choice for the students. Nevertheless, even the reduced number of lessons still exceeded the vast majority of West German schools and even today the amount of compulsory teaching of German language, mathematics, sciences and technics has not been reached again. The other side of the non-public criticism was the expansion of the ideology-burdened subjects like politics at the same time.
Additional elective courses were established at the beginning of the eighties. Each course was built on a specific framework program given by the Ministry of People's education, but the standards were more general and not tight like the curriculum for the compulsory subjects. The teacher could take a lot of liberty to plan and teach an additional elective course. Most of the courses covered topics from mathematics, physics, chemistry, crafts, arts, architecture, music, technical studies and conversation in a foreign language. All of these courses were very popular among students.
| grade | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| | 1st term | 2nd term | | | | | | | | | |
| Compulsory teaching |
| German language and literature | | 11 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Russian language | | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Mathematics | | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Physics | | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Chemistry | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Biology | | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Geography | | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Astronomy | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Technical drawing | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | – |
| Technical studies | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Productive work | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Handicrafts | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| School garden | | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| History | | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Civics and Politics | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Arts | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – |
| Music | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Physical education | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Sum of compulsory lessons | | 21 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 29 | 31 | 33 | 32 | 33 | 32 | 32 |
|
| Elective teaching |
| 2nd foreign language | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Additional elective courses | | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 2 |
| Needlework | | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Number of lessons at most | | 21 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 | 32 | 33 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 36 |
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