AfD on education

The AfD wants to strengthen dual vocational training because training positions are going unfilled. Every school diploma should qualify graduates for an apprenticeship, and vocational schools should be better equipped. Technical high schools would also be established.

The AfD wants to strengthen job training. Every school diploma should be enough to start training. Students should get better at math and reading. Vocational schools should get better equipment.

The platform lists four steps. Schools would focus on math and reading comprehension so that graduates are ready for training. Vocational schools would get better equipment, and Technische Gymnasien (technical high schools) would be created. Subsidized student dorms in the state would also accept trainees. Journeymen would receive support on their way to the master title.

The AfD wants a school system with three separate school types, including a new one with a technical and practical focus, and rejects a single comprehensive school. Requirements are to rise at all school types so that diplomas suffice for vocational training or university without extra help.

The AfD wants three different kinds of schools. One new kind should teach technical and practical skills. Schools should demand more. There should be one uniform exam for the Mittlere Reife, a mid-level diploma.

The AfD plans a standardized final exam for the Mittlere Reife (intermediate school diploma). Standards are not to be adjusted to falling performance. In the platform's view, the Mittlere Reife and the Abitur often no longer prepare students for training or university. Schools should convey knowledge; the AfD regards topics such as transgender issues, climate and campaigns against the right as ideology that should not be promoted there. The platform cites new recruits for skilled trades and technical occupations as a benefit.

The AfD wants children admitted to regular classes only once they know enough German. More school kindergartens with language support are to be set up for this. The platform also links better education to less immigration.

Children should learn German first. Only then do they join the normal class. For this the AfD wants more school kindergartens. The AfD also wants less immigration so classes get smaller.

In school kindergartens, children who are of school age but not yet ready for school would receive targeted German instruction. The platform argues that German-speaking students should not be held back in class. It considers the education system overwhelmed by immigration and announces a “migration turnaround”: immigration is to be stopped and people without a right to stay deported. The AfD expects smaller classes, less strain on teachers and less violence as a result.

The AfD wants to keep and strengthen Förderschulen (special-needs schools) for children with disabilities. Mainstream schools with disabled students should decide for themselves which subjects are taught jointly and which separately.

The AfD wants to keep special-needs schools and make them stronger. These are schools for children with disabilities. Regular schools should decide for themselves. They may teach children together or apart.

The platform calls participation of people with disabilities an important goal but considers current inclusion policy misguided. The local school would decide case by case on the form of teaching, depending on the child's strengths and weaknesses. The AfD cites former teachers' association president Josef Kraus. According to him, schooling at a specialized special-needs school is often superior to the inclusive approach.

The AfD wants a tough approach to violence in schools. Crimes are always to be reported, and teachers are to be legally protected and have their authority strengthened.

The AfD does not want to accept violence in schools. Schools should report every crime. Teachers should get more protection. Victims should matter more than offenders.

The platform points to a rise in recorded assaults at schools in the state from 646 in 2014 to 1,000 in 2023. It also speaks of more bullying and disrespect. Protecting victims is to take priority over protecting offenders. In the AfD's account, this would make schools safe again.

The AfD wants digital devices used in class only where they bring a benefit. Elementary schools are to do without tablets.

The AfD wants computers in schools only when they help. Elementary schools should have no tablets. Computers should not replace teachers. Children's data should be protected.

The platform points to Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, which are rolling back their school digitization. Too much screen time is said to harm concentration and learning. Artificial intelligence may support teachers but should not take their place. Data protection is described as mandatory.

The AfD wants to review existing sex education programs and give parents a say in the content. Schools should also be allowed to practice rituals such as raising flags and singing together.

The AfD wants to check lessons about sexuality. Parents should know the content and have a say. Schools should be allowed to keep shared customs. Examples are raising flags and singing German songs.

Sex education is to be age-appropriate and must not endanger children's well-being. Parents are to be informed and have a say. As rituals, the platform names ceremonial school assemblies, raising the state and federal flags, and singing German folk and children's songs. Schools would decide on these themselves. In the AfD's view, such rituals create identity and help integration.

The AfD wants to give the state's universities money so they can support companies founded out of academic work. The platform argues that innovation and entrepreneurship get too little support there today, leaving potential unused.

The AfD wants to support start-ups at universities. A start-up is a new company that can grow fast. Universities would get money and staff for this. The AfD says too little is done today.

Universities would receive staff and budgets to develop products and services. The platform plans dedicated professorships to guide students who want to found a company or bring an idea to market. Acquiring patents would be subsidized so that university developments are not exploited by outside parties. The platform expects new career opportunities, business partners for companies, and revenue for the state and the universities.

The AfD wants to give universities more stable core funding and reduce their dependence on third-party grants. The platform argues that this dependence endangers freedom of research and teaching. The party also opposes what it calls cancel culture at universities.

The AfD wants to give universities more fixed money. Researchers should write fewer grant applications. They should decide for themselves what to study. The AfD also wants everyone at universities to speak freely.

The platform describes third-party grants as mostly taxpayer money from the federal government and the EU, largely awarded through the German Research Foundation (DFG) under criteria it calls opaque. The range of research fields should not be narrowed by funders, and the AfD calls for technology neutrality. Scientists should have more time for research and teaching instead of applications. Researchers, lecturers and student groups outside the mainstream should be able to work and debate without pressure.

The AfD wants to raise the number of medical school places in the state from 500 to 750 within five years and to 1,000 in the long run. This is meant to end the doctor shortage, which the platform attributes to the age structure of the medical profession.

The AfD wants more places to study medicine. In five years there should be 750 instead of 500. Later there should be 1,000. This should make sure there are enough doctors again.

The extra places would be created at the Mainz University Medical Center and its sites in Trier and Koblenz. In addition, a second medical faculty would be founded at another university in the state. The platform notes that more than 40 percent of office-based doctors are 60 or older and that nearly 3,000 general practitioners and specialists will need to be replaced. In 2024, it says, only a third of more than 30,000 applicants nationwide got a place.