BSW on education

The BSW wants no Bundeswehr recruiting at schools and no arms research at the state's universities. Civil clauses are to be defended and peace education expanded. According to the platform, science should serve civilian progress, the common good and peace.

The army should not advertise at schools. Universities should not do research for the military. Schools should teach about peace. Young people should not join the army out of hardship.

The platform rejects Bundeswehr advertising at schools, educational institutions and public facilities and wants to end visits by youth officers. In their place it calls for peace education, peace initiatives and town twinning. Universities should have no military-directed research projects and no security-policy requirements. The party wants to defend civil clauses, which are commitments to purely civilian research. Its reasoning is that young people should not end up in military careers because of social insecurity.

The BSW wants to give vocational schools more staff, technology and money and keep schools close to where trainees live. Training content should be updated regularly to reflect new technology, and vocational education should be put permanently on an equal footing with academic education.

The BSW wants to equip vocational schools better. They should get more staff, technology and money. There should be vocational schools close to home. Every training course should teach how to handle computers and data.

For specialized occupations, the program calls for dormitories for vocational students. Digital skills, IT security and data protection are to be part of every training course, and skilled trades are to gain in standing. Companies, vocational schools and universities should cooperate more closely, for example in joint practical projects. The state government is to expand funding instruments and press at the federal level for equal status of vocational and academic education.

The BSW wants to make further training and retraining easier to access and to fund it with little red tape. Master craftsman training is to receive targeted support; at the same time, a review should determine whether the master's certificate requirement can be dropped in some sectors.

The BSW wants to make further training simpler. It should not depend on income. People who want to become a master craftsman should get support. The BSW also wants to check something. Do people in some trades really need a master's certificate to start a business?

The program sees retraining and further training as ways to keep workers employed during economic change and to keep skilled workers in the region. Vocational qualifications from abroad should be recognized faster and more easily. Support for master craftsman training is meant to raise the standing of the trades and secure business successions. For services, restaurants and certain trades, a review should establish whether the master's certificate requirement is necessary, in order to make start-ups easier.

The BSW wants all school students to receive the teaching and learning materials they need free of charge. According to the program, parents currently share the cost of textbooks and workbooks through fees and their own purchases. Access should not depend on family income.

Parents today help pay for textbooks and workbooks. The BSW wants to change that. All students should get their learning materials for free. It should not matter how much money the family has.

The program notes that lending systems and relief rules already exist but that free learning materials do not yet apply in full. The party places the demand within a change of course in education policy meant to make education a tool of social balance again. It criticizes a growing divide by income, background and place of residence.

The BSW wants to make teaching more attractive to counter the teacher shortage. Required teaching hours are to drop, cuts to workload reductions are to be reversed, and all salaried teachers are to get permanent contracts. Teachers' working time is also to be recorded.

Saxony-Anhalt is short of many teachers. The BSW wants to make the job more attractive. Teachers should have to teach one to two hours less. Salaried teachers should get permanent contracts. Working time should be recorded exactly. School offices should take more work off teachers.

The teaching load is to fall by one to two hours. The party wants to reverse cuts to credited hours, age-related reductions and extra duties, and to create a sufficient pool of substitute teachers. Working time recording should be data-minimizing, transparent and tamper-proof and developed with staff councils. School offices are to take on more tasks and be funded jointly by the state and municipalities. The program also criticizes a lack of support staff such as school social workers, school psychologists and IT support, as well as too little language support and resources for inclusion.

The BSW wants a binding smartphone ban in everyday school life and wants to keep digital devices out of elementary schools. Fixed rules for artificial intelligence in secondary schools are meant to keep students' own work assessable.

The BSW wants to ban phones at school. Elementary schools should not use digital devices. There should be clear rules for artificial intelligence. Students should keep thinking for themselves.

According to the platform, smartphones and tablets should not be used in class up to grade 8. The BSW rejects digital devices in elementary school because, in its view, they interfere with learning basic skills. New exam formats should test understanding, application and reflection rather than the use of algorithms. Teachers are to receive targeted training for this. The party justifies the phone ban with distraction, falling performance, conflicts and dependency.

The BSW wants children to learn together for longer: at first through grade 6, later through grade 8. In the party's view, sorting children after grade 4 disadvantages those from poorer households, and the tiered school system is outdated.

Children should learn together in one school for longer. First until grade 6, later until grade 8. Today children are split up after grade 4. The BSW says this is unfair to poorer children.

The Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive community school) is to become the leading model. The platform criticizes early sorting into school types because it fails to identify talents and disadvantages socially weaker families. The BSW considers practice-oriented paths more suitable for many children than a focus on the Gymnasium. It says pressure to obtain the Abitur leads to overload, private tutoring and dropouts.

The BSW wants to avoid school closures, especially in rural areas, and to modernize school buildings. Children should be allowed to attend the nearest school even if it lies in a different county.

The BSW wants to keep rural schools open. Children should have short trips to school. They should be allowed to go to a school in the next county. Old school buildings should be repaired.

In rural regions the minimum class size is to stay at 15 students, and having two parallel classes should not be a requirement for an elementary school to remain open. Rules that tie children to a more distant school within their own county are to be dropped. The platform describes a large renovation backlog with dilapidated buildings, outdated equipment and unstable networks. Schools are to get their own budgets for projects, short-term measures and day-to-day operations. School offices are to be upgraded and teachers relieved.

The BSW wants inclusion implemented across the state, backed by specialist staff and funding. Before children start school, their language level is to be assessed on a mandatory basis so that support needs are spotted early.

Children with and without disabilities should be able to learn together everywhere. There should be enough staff and money for this. Before school starts, every child's language should be checked. That way children get help early.

Special-needs and therapeutic education for children with severe or multiple disabilities is to be kept and developed further. The party stresses that inclusion must not reduce quality. Because of the growing share of children whose first language is not German, it sees a particular need for language and social support in daycare and all-day programs. Public health offices are to get enough staff for school entry examinations.

The BSW wants at least one permanent school social work position at every school. A statewide staffing ratio for school social work and school psychology is to be aligned with the national average.

Every school should have at least one school social worker. The job should be permanent. There should also be more school psychologists. The state should set fixed staffing rules.

The platform cites about 9,670 students per social worker and calls this the worst figure of any German state. Fixed-term posts and project-based funding, especially from the European Social Fund, are to end. School psychologists should do more preventive work and be easy to reach. Schools in socially strained areas are to receive targeted support. The BSW criticizes that state funding often covers only half a position even at large schools.

The BSW wants teams drawn from different professions to be the norm in schools. Instead of the planned school act, the party calls for an education act that makes staffing and funding binding and relieves schools.

Schools should not only have teachers. Other professionals should help too. The BSW rejects the planned school law. It wants a law that secures more staff and money for schools.

Besides social work and psychology, the platform counts IT support, administrative staff, teaching assistants and specialists for inclusion and school health as part of these teams. In the interim, volunteers, retirees and educational professionals are to help after training; volunteering is to get tax relief. In the long run the BSW demands heavy investment in education, youth work and prevention, plus smaller classes. It criticizes the planned school act for adding tasks without matching resources and for more bureaucracy. The act it calls for should also strengthen participation.

The BSW wants to greatly expand all-day programs at schools and establish them as a state responsibility. An all-day schooling regulation, a dedicated funding program and a quality drive through 2030 are meant to achieve this.

More schools should offer all-day programs. The state should set its own rules and give money. The care should be good, not just supervision. Rural areas especially lack such programs.

According to the platform, only about 14 percent of general schools in the state offer all-day programs, while in Saxony almost all do. It says the state is poorly prepared for the entitlement to all-day care for elementary students starting in 2026/27, lacking places, staff and rooms. The BSW warns against cheap stopgap solutions and demands staff that meet the standards of after-school centers and youth services. School authorities are to get help with planning, construction and partnerships.

The BSW wants all children in daycare centers and schools to get healthy meals free of charge. In the party's view, good nutrition is a precondition for concentration, learning and equal educational opportunity.

Children should get healthy food at daycare and school. The food should cost nothing. Children should also learn about healthy eating. For example in a school garden.

The meals are to be offered throughout the state. Children are to learn early how to handle food consciously, for instance through school gardens, community gardens and hands-on nutrition education. The platform links education and health and relies on early prevention. The BSW does not regard nutrition as a purely private matter.

The BSW wants to give universities adequate lump-sum core funding so that research does not depend on third-party grants. The party also backs universities' right to use civil clauses to rule out military use of their research.

Universities should get enough fixed money from the state. They should not depend on outside money. Universities may refuse research for the military. The BSW supports this right.

According to the platform, science should work free of political capture and of strong business influence. Basic research in particular is to be publicly funded on a lasting basis. The BSW says quality comes from stable structures and good supervision, not from competing for funds. Planning and funding should give more weight to the economic, social and cultural role of universities in their regions. A civil clause is a university's commitment to conduct research for civilian purposes only.

The BSW wants far more permanent positions at universities and collective agreements for all staff. In the party's view, insecure employment endangers the independence of science and makes life planning harder.

Many researchers only have temporary contracts. The BSW wants more permanent jobs. All staff should be paid under a union contract. Students who work at the university should get one too.

Permanent positions are to be the rule for permanent tasks. Contracts for academic qualification are to run for at least three years. Full-time work is to be the norm, with part-time only at the employee's request. For student employees the party demands a statewide collective agreement. Career paths are to be predictable and appointment procedures transparent. Saxony-Anhalt is to take a leading role on working conditions in science in order to keep young researchers in the state.

The BSW wants a critical review of the bachelor's-master's system and a serious look at bringing back the Diplom degree. Anyone who completes a bachelor's degree in the state should be assured a place in a master's program.

The BSW wants to review the bachelor's and master's system. The old Diplom degree might come back. Anyone who finishes a bachelor's in the state should get a master's place. Fewer students should drop out.

The party considers the goals of the Bologna reform largely unmet; in its view the result was school-like programs, exam pressure and shorter study periods. The Diplom or comparable integrated programs are considered mainly for engineering, natural sciences and economics. The causes of dropouts are to be analyzed thoroughly, from exam formats and supervision to students' social situation. Programs should be completable without lowering standards. Moving on to a master's should not be a further selection hurdle.

The BSW wants to keep university study free of tuition and to substantially expand and reform BAföG (federal student aid). Student services organizations and the state's preparatory college are to get more money.

Studying should stay free. Students should get more BAföG. BAföG is state money for students. Student services should get more money for housing, food and advice.

The party wants study to be independent of social background. Students should not have to work so much on the side that their degree is put at risk. Student services organizations should be able to absorb rising costs and broaden what they offer. The Landesstudienkolleg in Halle and Köthen prepares international students; it is to be better funded and staffed.

The BSW wants teacher training to be geared more toward classroom practice and wants more study places. Everyone who completes a teaching degree in the state should receive a job offer at a school.

Future teachers should get more practice during their studies. There should be more study places. Anyone who finishes the degree in the state should be offered a job. The BSW wants to win more teachers this way.

Theory and practice are to be linked more closely so that future teachers are prepared for classroom management and teaching. The separate degree programs for Sekundarschule and Gymnasium are to be reviewed and merged in the long term. The dual teacher training program in Magdeburg is to be expanded, while the academic program in Halle remains as a second site. The party considers two sites necessary to curb outmigration and supply rural regions.

The BSW wants more university places in human medicine and dentistry in Halle and Magdeburg because, in its view, the state trains too few doctors for its own needs. Admission should depend less on high school grades, and state scholarships should tie graduates to underserved regions.

The BSW wants more places to study medicine and dentistry. The party says the state trains too few doctors. School grades should matter less for admission. The state should give students money. In return, they later work in areas with few doctors.

Training capacity at the university hospitals in Halle and Magdeburg is to grow, mainly to secure care in rural areas. The admission process for medical school is to be reviewed so that aptitude is not judged primarily by formal Abitur (high school diploma) grades. State scholarships would come with a commitment to work for a longer period, around ten years, in underserved parts of the state. Advice and service offices would inform students and young doctors about funding, setting up a practice and related support. The program also wants to examine partnerships with universities elsewhere in Europe for applicants whose grades fall short of the admission threshold.

The BSW wants universities funded more through stable core budgets rather than third-party and project money. The state should fully cover wage increases from collective agreements. Fixed-term posts in academia, including at non-university institutes, should largely be replaced with permanent ones.

Universities should get more steady money from the state. They should depend less on project money. If wages go up, the state should pay the extra cost. Researchers should get permanent contracts more often. This should also apply at other research institutes.

The program argues that the growing share of third-party funding leads to short planning horizons, fixed-term contracts and dependence on outside funders. Money from the federal-state Zukunftsvertrag (Future Contract for teaching) should go permanently into staff, teaching and infrastructure instead of temporary projects. The state should offset collectively agreed pay rises across the whole public sector so that no jobs, study places or courses are cut. Mostly permanent employment should also become the norm at bodies such as the Max Planck and Fraunhofer societies. The Leopoldina national academy should work more closely with the state's universities and share rooms and infrastructure with them.

The BSW wants academics to be able to hold positions outside the majority view without suffering disadvantages. Universities should have an open culture of debate, including on contested views about topics such as gender, biology or politics.

Researchers should be free in their research and teaching. They should be allowed to voice unusual opinions. Nobody should be punished for that. This also applies to disputed topics like gender or politics. Universities should have clear rules and ways to complain.

The program sees permanent chains of fixed-term contracts as an obstacle to critical debate and permanent contracts as a tool for academic self-regulation. Reliable public funding is meant to prevent third-party funders from steering research content, and the publication of findings should be shielded from political interference. Citing Article 5 of the Basic Law, the BSW demands that nobody be excluded or sanctioned for their position. Guidelines and transparent complaint procedures are to safeguard a pluralistic academic culture.

The BSW wants to end the professors' majority on university governing bodies. Students and academic and non-academic staff should have an equal say. Universities should also offer more practice-oriented training.

Professors hold the majority on university boards today. The BSW wants to change that. All groups should have an equal say. These are students, researchers and other staff. Studies should also be closer to working life.

The program justifies equal representation by arguing that a professors' majority no longer fits the tasks of today's universities. All status groups are to take part on an equal footing. In addition, career- and practice-oriented education is to be expanded and given the same rank as research and teaching. Partnerships with companies, schools and social institutions are considered useful, but they must not affect the independence of academic content.

The BSW wants to respond to migration-related challenges with early language support, language tests and a compulsory preschool year. School districts should become more flexible so that children with a migration background are not concentrated in individual schools.

Children should get German language support already in kindergarten. There should be early language tests. One year of preschool should be required. Children from immigrant families should be spread more evenly across schools. That should give all children good chances.

Language support is to be binding from kindergarten on and backed by tests in early childhood. A compulsory preschool year and mixed classes are meant to secure educational opportunities for all children. School districts are to be drawn more flexibly for this purpose. The program sees room for action and responsibility at the state level.

The BSW wants to create a new education and qualification system for adults who immigrated without basic education, a school diploma or a trade. It is meant to make school diplomas and low-threshold vocational training possible. Germans without qualifications and pupils from special-needs schools are also to have access.

Some immigrants never went to school and never learned a trade. The BSW wants new education programs for them. There they can get a school diploma and learn a job. Germans without a diploma should be able to join too.

According to the platform, people without basic education find hardly any work on the labor market. Education and training concepts are to be developed, institutions founded and additional vocational school teachers trained. The system is also meant to serve German workers without a school or vocational qualification. Pupils from special-needs schools are explicitly included; the party says they are stigmatized early and can rarely catch up later.