CDU on education

The CDU wants to make the Meisterbrief (master craftsman certificate) free of charge to boost the skilled trades. After passing the exam, all remaining costs should be fully reimbursed.

People who take the master exam in a trade should pay nothing. After passing, they get all costs back. The CDU wants to make the trades stronger this way.

Reimbursement would cover all costs not already paid by the federal government or by existing state funding. The condition is passing the exam. The program sees the Meisterbrief as a mark of quality and wants to attract more young people to the trades.

The CDU wants to expand career guidance in schools: students in grades 9 and 10 should complete three mandatory internships, and every school should hold a "Day of the Trades." Vocational and academic education should be treated as equal, and vocational schools should be strengthened.

Students should get to know jobs early. In grades 9 and 10, they should do three internships. Every school should have a Day of the Trades. Teens aged 15 and up should get money for a trade internship during school breaks. Vocational schools should get more support.

The internships would take place in the trades, services or social sector, and career guidance should already begin in elementary school. Young people aged 15 and over should receive 120 euros up to four times a year for voluntary holiday internships in the trades. Vocational schools should get support for equipment and teachers, with private and public providers funded equally. The dual vocational training system should be backed as a pillar for securing skilled workers.

The CDU wants standardized short tests in the last two years of daycare to identify children's support needs. For children with language deficits, the final daycare year should be mandatory. The program sees daycare as key preparation for school.

The CDU wants short tests for children in daycare. This shows where they need help. Children with language problems must attend the last daycare year. Daycare should prepare kids well for school.

Standardized short tests are to take place in the second-to-last and last daycare years. For these two years, daycare centers are to develop a curriculum using scientifically tested programs in early math and language. The state's "Sprach-Kitas" (language daycare) program is to continue. Daycare centers should also offer more physical activity.

The CDU wants to keep all existing school types, including small schools, and to require grades without exception from third grade on. Performance assessment, grading and repeating a year are to remain part of the tiered school system. The program's goal is to secure regular lessons with good teaching quality.

The CDU wants to keep all types of schools. Small schools should stay too. From third grade, there should always be grades. Children can still repeat a year. Five-year-olds should not start school against their parents' wishes.

Elementary schools, Oberschulen, comprehensive schools, Gymnasien, vocational schools and special-needs schools are to remain; rules on minimum class sizes are to be reviewed so local schools can stay open. No child should start school at age five against the parents' will, without parents having to apply. Gifted classes are to remain and offerings for gifted students expand. At Gymnasien, the intermediate school certificate should be awarded without exams upon successful promotion. All-day programs are to get a legal and quality framework, and independent schools financial support and teacher training.

The CDU wants to address the teacher shortage with quick measures and more training. These include recruitment at home and abroad, bringing back retired teachers, more university places and lowering or abolishing admission grade limits for teacher training. It cites the large number of upcoming retirements.

Brandenburg does not have enough teachers. The CDU wants to find more teachers. Teachers from abroad should be able to start more easily. More young people should study to become teachers. The grade limit for this study should drop or go away.

In the short term, the CDU relies on headhunting, easier recognition of foreign degrees, incentives for retired teachers, more higher-paid positions, and relief through assistants, social workers, IT and health staff. Schools should be allowed to use funds from vacant posts for other hires; a temporary, paid "Brandenburg hour" of extra teaching is a last resort. Long term, teacher-training places in Potsdam and Cottbus-Senftenberg are to grow and graduates with only one subject could be hired. The Viadrina university should qualify foreign, especially Polish, teachers for lower secondary schools, and a teacher-training college is to be set up. The rural teacher scholarship is to be expanded and the "FSJ Schule" program kept.

The CDU wants a guarantee that children can read, write and do math by the end of fourth grade, with extra support lessons if needed. It cites studies that, in the program's view, show a long-term decline among Brandenburg elementary students.

Children should read, write and do math well after fourth grade. The CDU wants to guarantee this. Kids with problems get extra help lessons. German and math should get more time.

Elementary schools are to focus more on basic skills. German and math are to get even more weight in the timetable. A daily reading period is to become mandatory in all elementary schools. Curricula are to be slimmed down and include practical life skills.

The CDU wants to equip all schools, including vocational schools, with IT infrastructure, internet, devices and trained staff. The state should pay for standardized digital learning materials so opportunities do not depend on the finances of parents or school authorities.

All schools should get good internet and devices. Teachers should be trained for this. The state should pay for digital learning tools. Then learning does not depend on parents' money.

Plans include teaching concepts, revised curricula, a legal framework and technical minimum standards for digital lessons, with scientific evaluation. Schools are to get a "digital budget" they can use freely and more say in procurement. Municipalities are to get help hiring IT support staff ("digital caretakers"). State-recognized "digital schools" modeled on music and art schools are to be created as an extracurricular offering.

The CDU wants to clear what it sees as a large investment backlog at daycare centers and schools with an expanded construction program for municipalities. Funding procedures are to become simpler and digital gaps closed quickly.

Many schools and daycare centers need repairs. The CDU wants to help towns build. Applying for money should be easier. Missing technology at schools should come fast.

Planning is to take all-day programs into account. School authorities teaching many students from other municipalities are to get priority for funding. Application, grant and procurement procedures are to be simplified together with the municipal umbrella associations. At the federal level, the CDU will push for a Digitalpakt 2.0 (a follow-up federal school digitization program).

The CDU wants to anchor democratic awareness and extremism prevention more firmly in the curricula of all school types. Right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism and Islamism are to be addressed explicitly. The subject LER (life skills, ethics, religious studies) is also to place more emphasis on respect, tolerance and a culture of debate.

Students should learn more about democracy. They should know the dangers of extremism. This means right-wing, left-wing and Islamist extremists. The state civic education office should offer more in rural areas.

New formats are to address social change and media literacy. The state agency for civic education is to expand its rural and digital offerings. The subject LER is to be redesigned to cover social skills. Schools are also to teach "learning how to learn" and help children learn to ride bikes and swim.

The CDU wants to strengthen dual and school-based vocational training, which it sees as an equal alternative to university. Training pay is to be introduced for early-childhood educators, special-needs caregivers and comparable health professions.

The CDU says job training is as good as university. It wants to make job training better known. People training as daycare educators should get paid. This also goes for similar health jobs.

An image campaign for vocational training is planned. Career counseling and youth employment agencies are to be strengthened, and internships and holiday jobs supported. Advanced training such as master craftsman courses is to be promoted.

The CDU wants to strengthen university autonomy: the ministry should stop micromanaging and only agree on funding and targets. Base budgets are to rise by 5 million euros each year, and the roughly 50,000 student enrollment is to be at least maintained.

Universities should decide more for themselves. The ministry should give fewer orders. Universities should get 5 million euros more each year. There should be at least as many students as today.

University contracts are to run for five years to provide planning security. Study places are to be developed according to demand in science, engineering, education, medicine and nursing. A central computing center is to relieve universities of IT tasks. Student self-government is to remain, but its budgets are to be made public and its officeholders required to commit to the democratic constitutional order.