[imtringued]

>People that were not placed into Gymnasium at age 8 are set on a course where, once they turn 18, do not get to go free Uni; they simply are not allowed to go to Uni at all!

Well, that's not true at all. If you finish Realschule or Hauptschule you can decide to go the Gymnasium when you are 16. You can also go to a Gymnasium for adults while you work.

From my experience at least a third of my fellow Realschule graduates decided to continue school and go to the Gymnasium. Then at work I knew at least two people who decided to go to an evening Gymnasium while they were working at their first job. The problem clearly isn't a lack of opportunity. The number of people enrolling at our evening Gymnasium is shrinking and at some point they might have to shut it down completely.