BSW on education

The BSW wants schools to refocus on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Gender-inclusive language would be banned in schools and public offices, and phones and tablets would be removed from elementary classrooms.

The BSW wants children to learn reading, writing, and math first. Gender-inclusive language should be banned in schools and public offices. Elementary classes up to grade 4 should have no phones or tablets.

The platform promises schools where a child's chances do not depend on the parents' income. Phones and tablets would be kept out of elementary classrooms at least through the end of fourth grade, because the BSW believes they hinder learning. The ban on gender-inclusive language would apply to schools and public authorities alike. The platform argues that fewer and fewer children learn to read, write, and do math properly.

The BSW wants to ban smartphones and tablets in class at least through fourth grade. Elementary schools should focus first on reading, writing, and arithmetic, because the platform argues that digital devices hinder learning and language development.

The BSW wants to ban smartphones and tablets in class. This should apply at least until 4th grade. Children should mainly learn to read, write, and do math. They should work more with printed books again.

Basic skills are to take priority in elementary school, regardless of how much help a child gets at home. Printed textbooks and the teacher's subject knowledge should be at the center. The platform points to Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark, which it says have halted school digitalization, and recommends the same path for Germany. In higher grades, classes should teach the opportunities and risks of digital media and how to use them responsibly.

The BSW wants to tackle the teacher shortage by training more teachers in the state, adopting a long-term staffing plan, and improving working conditions. Classes should have no more than 25 students, and teacher training should be practice-oriented from the start.

Brandenburg is short of many teachers. The BSW wants to train more teachers in the state. A class should have 25 children at most. Teachers should have less office work. Teacher training should include more practice.

According to the platform, about 1,000 teaching posts are vacant and more than 13,000 new teachers will be needed by 2035. Instead of a two-million-euro advertising campaign, the BSW wants to expand training and keep graduates in the state long term. Teachers and childcare workers should be relieved of bureaucracy and overload; tasks outside the classroom such as organization, parent contact, or IT upkeep should be reorganized. Teacher training is to be fundamentally reformed because, in the platform's view, subjects like math and science focus too much on specialist knowledge. The BSW considers it a mistake to keep allowing remote instruction.

The BSW wants to give Oberschulen (non-academic secondary schools) and comprehensive schools more funding and staff and make them more practice-oriented. Clearer admission criteria should apply to the Gymnasium (academic-track school) to prevent overcrowding, and grades should remain the standard everywhere.

The BSW wants to strengthen Oberschulen and comprehensive schools. They should get more money and more staff. The Gymnasium should have clearer rules for admission. Switching between school types should be easier. All schools should keep giving grades.

Oberschulen and comprehensive schools should prepare students better for life and work, especially those with practical and manual talents. Curricula of Oberschule and Gymnasium should be better aligned so that switching in either direction is easier; this could also allow longer joint learning beyond grade 6, with existing school centers as a model. The platform sees Gymnasien as overcrowded because many parents expect career success only there, which burdens families financially. It also calls for an integrated career-orientation program with organized company internships and closer links between elementary school and after-school care.

The BSW wants to set up teams from various professions in schools to relieve teachers. Every school should have at least one school social worker, with a ratio of one per 300 students.

The BSW wants more helpers in schools. These include social workers, psychologists, and IT staff. Every school should have at least one social worker. Teachers should then have more time for teaching.

The teams would consist of childcare workers, social workers, psychologists, administrative staff, and IT officers, with school nurses added. Social work positions must not come at the expense of teaching posts. The platform expects less frustration and fewer canceled lessons as a result. For schools in disadvantaged areas it proposes neighborhood family centers, selected using a social index. The number of voluntary social year (FSJ) places at schools, most recently 120, should rise.

The BSW wants to keep existing schools in the state, including in sparsely populated regions. In addition, a dedicated funding program should fix deficits in school buildings and equipment.

The BSW does not want to close schools. This also applies to villages with few children. Children should not have very long trips to school. A program should repair run-down school buildings.

The platform criticizes rigid minimum student numbers that endanger rural schools and names all-day schooling as a way to secure locations. Long commutes cut into children's time for play and rest and should become more bearable. School buildings are often in poor condition, technology is lacking or slow to be repaired, and municipalities and counties can only partly cope, it says. The platform calls for intact, modern rooms and a well-staffed school administration.

The BSW wants to keep special schools and support centers for children with particular needs. At the same time, mainstream schools should get more staff and materials for inclusion; the platform considers inclusion sensible but sees limits.

The BSW wants to keep special schools. Some children need extra help with learning. These schools should stay open for them. Other schools should get more staff for learning together.

According to the platform, learning together can be enriching for many children, and abilities of disabled children are sometimes lost in special schools. But mainstream schools are not sufficiently funded or staffed for this, it says, so the extra care falls to teachers. The platform calls the rise in special educational needs alarming, especially in social-emotional development.

The BSW wants to give higher education institutions more money and staff and raise their core funding. Budgets should depend less on third-party grants and no longer on enrollment and graduate numbers.

The BSW wants to give universities more stable money. The money should depend less on outside funders. The number of students should no longer count for it. Universities should get modern equipment.

The funding balance between universities of applied sciences and research universities should be reviewed, since support should not focus only on universities. Academic bodies should gain weight relative to university leadership, and performance pay should depend less on technical criteria and negotiating skill. Degree programs should become more content-driven and formally flexible, and bureaucracy should shrink. The BSW wants to support cooperation with companies, trades, and industry, align continuing education with the needs of small and mid-sized firms, and bring technical equipment up to the highest level.

The BSW calls for full-time contracts under collective agreements with terms of at least one year for young researchers. Student employees should get a collective agreement, and universities of applied sciences should gain the right to award doctorates.

Young researchers should get secure work contracts. The contracts should run for at least one year. Students who work at universities should get a union pay agreement. Universities of applied sciences should be allowed to award doctorates.

Part-time work should exist only when employees want it themselves, and fixed-term contracts should become less common. Universities of applied sciences should have permanent assistant positions like research universities. This is meant to strengthen research by their professors, who according to the platform teach considerably more than colleagues at universities. The BSW also wants to secure the financial framework to attract and retain qualified teaching and research staff.

The BSW wants to meet the demand for skilled workers mainly through better-paid and more attractive vocational training at home. The party rejects labor immigration as the answer because, in its view, it lowers wages and harms the countries of origin.

The BSW wants to train more young people in the state. Trainees should get more money. The party does not want to bring skilled workers from abroad. It says this pushes wages down here. And those workers are then missing in their home countries.

Training should be paid better and offer chances for advancement. The BSW wants to fund and promote vocational qualifications, master craftsman courses and retraining more strongly, geared to demand and to applicants' aptitude. Companies should get support for upskilling through programs that involve vocational schools and universities, and such institutions should be expanded locally. To counter loneliness among older people, the party wants better funding for everyday helpers and proposes a pilot project to bring unemployed people into lasting jobs.