GERMANY STUDENTS GERMANE : MASTER CONTEXT PRECIS

GERMANY'S biggest problem : Its Economy. Then there's education. The country's famous dual-vocational system, which allows students to complete their schooling in the workplace, long ensured that industry got the kind of skilled labor it needed.

But the system now lacks applicants, partly because of demographic decline and partly because too many young people choose to pursue other careers.

Germany's high school students, what's more, are struggling in the very subjects that the country used to excel in : math and natural sciences.

OVERALL, GERMANY is not investing enough in education - and enough of the money that's invested goes to promoting the scientific and technological evidence that the economy so badly needs.

TECHNICAL universities that have produced legions of Nobel Laureates are constantly placed behind better-funded rivals elsewhere.

A return to the audacious research projects of the past, typically a collaboration between government, academia and private enterprise, would be a start.

!WOW! thanks Konstantin Richter.