AfD on education

The AfD announces an education overhaul built on achievement, discipline and identity. Curricula would be fundamentally revised, with more testable knowledge and priority for STEM subjects. It also wants proof of German skills before leaving school and a binding code of conduct.

The AfD wants to change schools a lot. Students should learn more knowledge that can be tested. Math, technology and science should matter more. Nobody should leave school without enough German. There should be fixed rules for behavior.

The order for new curricula would go out within the first 100 days. As a rule, students would not be allowed to end their schooling without proving sufficient German. A mandatory code of conduct is meant to strengthen discipline, with violations punished regardless of a student's background. The platform cites more dropouts, missing basics in German and math, and what it sees as ideological paternalism. Its guiding ideas are excellence, order and a German Leitkultur (guiding culture).

The AfD wants the German flag flying at every public school in the state within 100 days. The platform links this to an education policy built on identity and a German Leitkultur (guiding culture).

The AfD wants the German flag at every public school. This should happen within 100 days. The AfD says school should also show German culture.

Flying the flag is part of the announced education overhaul, whose three principles are achievement, discipline and identity. It would apply to all public schools. The deadline is 100 days after taking office.

The AfD puts knowledge, skills and performance at the center and wants to keep the tiered school system. The elementary school recommendation is to count for the Realschule (mid-level secondary school) as well, and the nine-year Gymnasium is to get more lessons. Inclusion is to happen only with a sense of proportion.

The AfD wants to keep different types of schools. Performance should matter at school. Elementary school should help decide who goes to the mid-level school. Children must know enough German before elementary school. Children with disabilities often learn better in special schools, the AfD says.

Switching between school types is to remain possible as a rule. Children without sufficient German are to attend preschool classes first; by the end of fourth grade, solid standards are to be reliably met. For the nine-year Gymnasium, the AfD criticizes fewer lessons than before, rejects ending the required second foreign language and wants math alongside German as a fixed written exam subject. According to the program, joint schooling with disabled children must not overburden anyone, and special schools often support them more effectively. Schools are also to get more autonomy and less bureaucracy.

The AfD wants to relax compulsory school attendance and replace it with a duty to be educated that also allows homeschooling. The state is to keep checking performance. The program argues that the state only inadequately secures the right to education.

Today all children must attend a school. The AfD wants to change that. Children should also be allowed to learn at home. But the state should check what the children have learned.

The program describes German compulsory schooling as especially strict by international standards. It is to be replaced by a duty to be educated that makes homeschooling possible. State performance checks are to remain in place.

The AfD wants to tackle the shortage of skilled workers by raising the standing of traditional vocational training relative to university study. Economic considerations would weigh more heavily in decisions to expand or cut degree programs, with an eye to demand in STEM fields.

The AfD wants more young people to do vocational training. Schools should show how important skilled trades are. The state also needs more people for technology and computer science. For university subjects, the benefit to the economy should count more.

The program notes that training occupations have lost appeal and speaks of an “academization mania.” Information campaigns in schools under the slogan “Meister statt Master” (master craftsman instead of master's degree) would convey that tradespeople and technical and commercial employees are indispensable. The AfD also sees strong demand in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology because digitalization and AI are growing in importance. Also planned are programs for school leavers without a diploma, support for dual vocational training and incentives for Germans who emigrated to return.