CDU on education

The CDU wants to recruit 10,000 new early childhood educators by 2027 through a staffing and training drive. To do so, paid, practice-based training would be expanded and entry into the profession made easier.

Many daycare centers lack trained staff. The CDU wants 10,000 new educators by 2027. Training should be paid and include more hands-on work. People from other jobs should also be able to switch to daycare more easily.

A training pact between the state, municipalities and training providers is planned to raise capacity quickly. Dual-track training with collectively agreed pay is to grow, and the CDU wants to launch a reform with more practical content through the conference of state education ministers. New vocational schools would be approved with little red tape, trainers relieved with allotted hours, and career changes made easier. In addition, the platform foresees part-time bachelor's and master's programs, more university places and more staff for the research institute nifbe.

The CDU wants to introduce a third professional per group in daycare centers. This would happen in stages by 2027 at the latest and improve the staff-to-child ratio.

A third trained person should work in each daycare group. That way more adults look after the children. The CDU wants to do this step by step by 2027. It should also make daycare jobs more attractive.

The third staff member is part of the plan to improve working and training conditions for educators. According to the platform, implementation depends on the recruitment drive delivering enough personnel. Daycare directors would also get more release time, and staff more hours for further training. Daycare operators are expected to provide the necessary personnel.

The CDU wants to bring back the Brückenjahr (bridge year) in the final year of daycare starting in 2024, to ease the transition to elementary school. In the medium term, this is meant to develop into a modern form of preschool.

The last daycare year should be a bridge year again. In it, children get ready for school. The CDU wants to start this in 2024. Later it should become a new kind of preschool.

Alongside the bridge year, school kindergartens and existing cooperation and transition models between daycare centers and elementary schools are to be expanded. The platform sees daycare centers as places that prepare children for their school career before enrollment. The aim is an easier and better start to school.

The CDU plans an investment program for daycare quality and a "DigitalPakt Kita" (digital pact for daycare) to simplify administration and reporting. New buildings are also to be cheaper and faster to build, and new types of daycare easier to set up.

The CDU wants to put more money into good daycare. Digital tools should make office work in daycare easier. New daycare centers should be built faster and cheaper. Forest daycare and company daycare should also be easier to start.

State funding for daycare is to be improved and simplified. The state would develop a modular building system for new daycare centers and schools that municipalities can use to cut costs and speed up procedures. Founding forest, nature and company kindergartens would become easier, and adjusted opening hours are meant to help parents combine family and work. The platform also lists more inclusion in daily daycare life, support for professional advisory services and a training drive on child protection.

The CDU promises teacher coverage of at least 100 percent statewide and calls this a teaching guarantee. To achieve it, 5,000 additional teachers are to be hired within five years.

The CDU wants as few canceled classes as possible. For that, there must be enough teachers. In five years, 5,000 extra teachers should be hired. This applies to all schools in the state.

The guarantee is to cover both general and vocational schools. At the same time, the CDU rejects a new debate about school structures and wants to focus on teaching quality, permeability between school types and individual support. Every child should leave school with a diploma. The state is to create conditions that make teaching in Lower Saxony attractive.

The CDU wants to gradually raise starting salaries for all types of teachers to pay grade A13 over the legislative term. This is meant to reflect the length of their studies and the esteem for the profession in their pay.

Teachers start with different pay depending on the type of school. The CDU wants to change that. All should start at pay grade A13. This should happen step by step over five years.

Teachers of practical vocational subjects are also to be paid better. Because starting salaries rise, the CDU also wants to reassess pay for positions with special functions. The platform justifies the raise with the length of teacher training and recognition for the job.

The CDU wants to introduce a bonus for teachers in shortage subjects and underserved regions. Teachers are also to be freed from administrative work, in part through a new trained occupation called "Schulfachangestellte" (school administration specialist).

Some subjects and areas do not have enough teachers. Teachers who work there should get a bonus. That is extra money. Teachers should also have less office work. New school office specialists should do that work.

The bonus is meant to create incentives for rural areas and for schools facing social challenges. School administration specialists would take over administrative tasks, and large schools would get more office staff. Teachers and principals with special duties in inclusion and integration would receive extra relief hours. In addition, all teachers are to get digital devices and suitable training, and the regional state school authorities are to be developed further.

The CDU wants to significantly expand school social work and employ twice as many school psychologists as today. Actual demand is to be determined for this purpose.

Schools should have more social workers. The CDU also wants twice as many school psychologists. They help children with worries and problems. First the CDU wants to check how many are needed.

Depending on the demand identified, the number of university places would be adjusted. Schools facing particular challenges are also to receive considerably more educational staff.

The CDU wants to run a pilot project testing how teacher training can include more practical work from the first semester on. In addition, a "Quereinstieg Plus" (lateral entry plus) program would let experienced professionals enter teaching through part-time study.

People who want to become teachers should practice in schools earlier. The CDU wants to test this first in a trial. People from other jobs should also be able to become teachers. They would study while working.

Universities, teacher training seminars and training schools are to work together more closely. Subject-specific planning would tie the number of university places to schools' needs. Training seminars in rural areas would be strengthened and used to full capacity. In "perspective talks," the state wants to match trainee teachers' wishes with open positions while they are still in training.

The CDU wants to identify learning gaps and emotional strain from the COVID period and address them with catch-up, mentoring and support programs. A new program is also meant to warn early when students are at risk of dropping out.

Many children learned less because of COVID. The CDU wants to find these gaps and close them. There should be tutoring and mentoring for this. There should also be help with emotional problems. A new program should stop young people from dropping out of school.

Besides learning gaps, the social, emotional and psychological effects of the pandemic are to be identified and met with suitable support. Diplomas of the affected cohorts are to keep their value through high standards and performance assessments. The anti-dropout program is conceived as a warning system run by schools and youth welfare providers, combined with targeted support.

The CDU wants to gradually reduce class sizes, starting in elementary schools, and make reading, writing and arithmetic a priority. German language skills are to be supported early, including through language assessments for all four-year-olds.

Classes should have fewer children. This should start in elementary schools. Reading, writing and math should matter more. All children should take a language test at age four. Children who speak little German then get extra help.

Curricula are to be revised, include basic digital skills and give teachers more freedom to set their own priorities and teach across subjects. Media literacy and English as a subject would also be strengthened. The CDU wants to review final and Abitur exams in comparison with other states to secure diplomas that are comparable nationwide at a high level. Support for STEM subjects is to grow through student research labs and partnerships with universities, research institutes and companies.

The CDU wants to make computer science a compulsory subject sooner than planned and train more teachers for it. Economic knowledge, everyday life skills, consumer education and swimming lessons are also to get more weight in schools.

The CDU wants to make computer science a required subject sooner. There should be more teachers for it. Students should also learn more about business and everyday life. Every school should have a plan for swimming lessons.

For compulsory computer science, the program calls for extra teacher training, more university places and easier entry for career changers. Lower and upper secondary schools are to teach more economics, including through exchange with business and start-up support agencies. Every school site is to get an action plan for swimming lessons, backed by a funding program set up with municipalities. The school fruit program is to continue, and cooperation with theater educators and independent theaters is to grow. Students with dyscalculia (a math learning disorder) are to get support beyond lower secondary school.

The CDU wants to keep denominational religious education while expanding the subject Werte und Normen (values and norms) and Islamic religious education. Cooperation with the association Ditib is to be cut back sharply and later ended altogether because of political interference.

The CDU wants to keep religion classes in schools. The subject values and norms should get more room too. There should be more Islamic religion classes. But the CDU wants to stop working with the Turkish group Ditib.

The CDU wants to support the Catholic and Protestant churches in building a joint Christian religion class. Islamic religious education is to rely more on teachers trained in Germany, especially in Osnabrück. The program describes Ditib as a religious authority close to the Turkish government. The party justifies ending the cooperation by pointing to political interference.

The CDU wants digital technology to become a fixed part of teaching. The state is to provide vetted learning software centrally, equip teachers with devices and recognize tablets and laptops as learning materials that students can borrow.

The CDU wants more digital technology in schools. The state should buy good learning programs for all schools. Teachers should get their own devices. Students should be able to borrow tablets and laptops at low cost.

The plan includes a statewide digital support body run with the state initiative n-21, an upgraded education cloud, a licensing service for software and apps, and free mandatory training. A statewide list of recommended programs (whitelist) is meant to settle data protection questions. IT professionals are to take over maintenance together with school authorities so teachers are relieved. Dedicated grants in municipal fiscal equalization are to ensure equal digital learning conditions. Further items are a nationwide digital education ID, a "Digital Truck" for primary schools modeled on Hesse, and pilot municipal digital schools.

The CDU wants school authorities to set their own school structure based on parents' wishes and rejects what it sees as an ideological debate over structures. At the end of primary school there is to be a recommendation for the secondary track again, and Gymnasien (academic-track secondary schools) are to be guaranteed.

The CDU wants a recommendation after primary school again. It says which school fits the child. The Gymnasium schools should be safe from closing. Towns and counties should decide on their school types themselves.

The program calls this preserving the "school peace." Cooperative comprehensive schools are to be allowed to be founded again and return to the school law. Small sites, for example in rural areas, are to be secured through exceptions to class-size thresholds; primary schools with branch sites always get a deputy head post. Primary schools are also to work more closely with daycare centers, and all school types are to expand career and study guidance with chambers, vocational schools and companies.

The CDU wants to help municipalities meet the legal right to all-day care in primary schools from 2026 through a school construction drive. More outside education partners are to take part in all-day programs so that teachers can be used more for regular lessons.

From 2026, primary school children have a right to afternoon care. The CDU wants to help towns with this, also with money for school buildings. More music schools and art schools should join in the afternoon. That gives teachers more time for regular lessons.

Support for municipalities is to cover planning, staff and money and give them legal certainty. Open, partly compulsory and fully compulsory all-day models remain possible and become more flexible. The share of teachers in compulsory and partly compulsory all-day programs is to fall, which the party says improves lesson coverage. Art schools, music schools and other providers of cultural youth education are to be involved more, which the party says also creates income opportunities for artists.

The CDU wants to keep all Förderschulen (special-needs schools), develop them into inclusive competence centers and anchor the special schools for learning and for speech permanently in the school law. The party says inclusion should be guided by the child's well-being and leave parents a real choice between school types.

The CDU wants to keep all special-needs schools. These are schools for children who need extra help. New schools of this kind should be allowed too. Parents should be able to choose their child's school. All schools should get more experts for these children.

The special schools for learning and for speech are to count as regular school types and may be newly founded. Day education centers are to be able to develop into special schools for intellectual development. All school types are to get more special-education teachers and educational staff in multi-professional teams, along with more university places for special education. The use of integration aides is to be redesigned and given more staff. Teachers are to be required to take training, and inclusion is to get more room in all teacher-training degrees.

The CDU wants to make schools more autonomous and strengthen school heads. They are to be able to hire staff themselves and take on more responsibility for digitizing their school.

The CDU wants schools to decide more on their own. School heads should be able to hire teachers themselves. This should be possible all through the school year. There should be new training for school heads.

Job postings and hiring are to become simpler and be handled by schools themselves throughout the school year. The job profile of school heads is to be redefined, and teaching load and pay are to be aligned with it. A leadership academy and a part-time degree in education management are planned, together with universities and teacher-training seminars. Key topics are school, personnel and administrative law as well as leadership skills.

The CDU wants to recalculate state subsidies for private and church-run schools on the basis of their full costs. It sees these schools as an indispensable part of the school landscape and wants to include them more in support programs.

The CDU wants to support private and church schools. The state should work out anew how much money they get. They should also benefit more from support programs. Catholic schools should be allowed to take more non-Catholic children.

Quality assurance and school supervision are to be reviewed together with the school operators. These schools are to be treated better than before in support, training and infrastructure programs and when special needs arise. They are to be allowed to have career changers trained at state teacher seminars and to use the state job portal. At Konkordatsschulen (Catholic schools under a church-state treaty), the permitted share of non-Catholic students is to rise, and the denominational quota is to be renegotiated with the Catholic schools.

The CDU wants to embed career orientation in lessons as early as possible and create a dedicated anchor subject at all school types. The goal is above all to make dual vocational training better known and more attractive.

The CDU wants a new school subject on career orientation. All types of schools should have it. Students should learn about many jobs early on. There should also be vouchers for internships.

The plans include internship vouchers for students and regular future-planning talks with youth employment agencies and chambers starting in grade 8. Apprentices in their second or third year are to tell grade 8 and 9 classes about their experience. The CDU wants to create a right to a potential assessment and strengthen training guides through a state program. Teachers are to be better prepared for this task during their studies and practical training. Partnerships between schools and universities, chambers, and companies are to grow, with a focus on STEM occupations.

The CDU wants to simplify transitions between vocational training and higher education in both directions. The platform stresses that vocational and academic education are of equal value.

The CDU wants to make it easier to switch between job training and university. Master craftspeople should get into university more easily. People who drop out of university should find it easier to start job training. What they already learned should count.

Master craftspeople are to get easier access to university, both formally and in terms of content. Skills gained on the job are to count more toward a degree, and new credit-transfer models are to be developed and tested. People who change or drop out of their studies should be able to have their coursework recognized in vocational training. The CDU also wants to expand dual study programs and raise the standing of the Berufsakademien (vocational academies).

The CDU wants to give vocational schools more money, more staff, and better digital equipment. By 2025 they are to become regional centers of excellence for vocational education with more autonomy.

The CDU wants to strengthen vocational schools. They should get more money, more staff and better digital equipment. The schools should decide more on their own. Fewer lessons should be canceled.

Teaching coverage is to exceed 100 percent, as at general schools. A program called ProReKo 2.0 is meant to make the schools more independent, steered through target agreements. The CDU plans an institute for vocational education and new competence clusters with cooperation between schools. In rural areas, schooling close to home and workplace is to be secured even for small classes. Equipment for hybrid courses is meant to let students use what other vocational schools offer.

The CDU wants to create more university places, make degree programs more flexible and digital, and make it easier to take courses at other universities in the state. High-achieving school and university students are to get dedicated support programs.

The CDU wants more places at universities. Students should find it easier to take courses at other universities. Studying part-time should also get easier. Very gifted school and university students should get special support.

University administration systems are to be modernized and unified where possible, and course catalogs linked statewide. Universities are asked to review how they recognize credits. The bachelor's and master's system is to leave more room for time abroad, and moving on to a master's is to become easier, partly through digital teaching. Part-time study alongside work or family is to be made easier. In addition, there are to be scholarships and orientation days for especially talented school students and a state excellence program for gifted university students.

The CDU wants to create more student housing in university towns and back the Studentenwerke (student services organizations) in doing so. Semester fees and the semester transit pass are to be in reasonable proportion to their benefit.

The CDU wants more housing for students in university towns. The semester transit pass should not cost too much. There should be cheap tickets for students. Universities should get help with child care.

The CDU wants to discuss semester fees with the state transit company and the statewide conference of student unions. University bodies are to get more financial autonomy so they can rebalance fees and services themselves. As public transit expands, students are also to get low-cost ticket options. Counseling and support from the student services organizations are to be developed further. Universities are to receive help with child care for staff and students, and student representation is to be supported.

The CDU wants to expand language and basic education programs for adults. The platform cites as its motivation that ten percent of people in the state cannot read and write well enough to take part in society.

Many adults cannot read and write well. The CDU wants more learning programs for them. Young adults from immigrant families should also get language support. The programs should be easy to reach.

The CDU focuses in particular on young adults with a migration background and weak reading and writing skills who are too old to attend regular school. Access to basic education programs and the work of the basic education centers are to be evaluated in order to lower barriers and use digital channels for first contact. Adult education is to be tied more closely to neighborhood and social work as an outreach service.

The CDU wants to scrap all school fees in vocational training and introduce training pay instead. This is meant to attract more people to these occupations and ease the shortage of skilled workers.

In some training programs, trainees have to pay school fees. The CDU wants to end these fees. Trainees there should get paid instead. This should lead more people to learn these jobs.

The abolition is to cover all school fees in vocational training. At the same time, pay for trainees is to be introduced there. The platform justifies both with the goal of gaining more skilled workers.

The CDU wants to create a Lower Saxony training bonus for low-income employees once the federal scheme ends. It also wants tax incentives for lifelong learning and more ways for adults to complete a school-leaving qualification later in life.

The CDU wants to support further training. People with low pay should get money from the state for it. There should also be tax benefits. Adults should find it easier to finish school later.

The bonus is meant to replace the federal support when it expires and is aimed at employees with low incomes. The CDU also wants to push for tax incentives that encourage learning throughout working life. Programs that let adults obtain a school-leaving qualification leading to vocational training are to be expanded.

The CDU wants to change the state's higher education law so that universities with many successful spin-offs benefit financially. It also plans up to 50 additional professorships in key digital fields and easier moves between academia and business.

The CDU wants more new companies to come out of universities. Universities with many such companies should get more money. There should be up to 50 new professor jobs for digital topics. Experts should move more easily between research and business.

All students are to have access to voluntary courses on entrepreneurship that earn credit points. Employment rules for academic staff are to be modernized. The new professorships are intended for artificial intelligence, big data and "biologization" (applying biological principles in technology). Also planned are a checklist for university spin-offs, founding and transfer coaching with better-connected transfer offices, and co-innovation spaces at universities. Regional networks with chambers, municipalities and business are to be expanded.

The CDU wants to support universities in the federal-state Excellence Strategy competition and have at least one "University of Excellence" in the state. Stable core funding and a new university development agreement are meant to secure the universities.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state's universities. At least one should win the title "University of Excellence." This is an award for very good research. Universities should get reliable funding.

The six existing clusters of excellence are to be defended and more won. Priorities include energy and health services research, medicine, quantum and biotechnology, AI, computer science and the natural sciences. The new university development agreement is to build on the analysis of the universities' potential. The CDU also wants to keep a broad range of degree programs across the state and prepare universities for a mix of in-person and digital teaching, including digital lectures by international researchers.

The CDU wants to open up new sources of money for universities beyond the state budget, such as funds fed by donations, bequests, and contributions from alumni. It also commits to university autonomy and wants to give universities more room to make their own decisions.

The CDU wants to set up a fund for universities. Donations and inherited money should go into this fund. Former students should also be able to give money to their university. Universities should also be able to decide more things on their own.

Universities would be allowed to set up their own funds financed by alumni. In addition, the CDU plans a statewide university fund that channels donations, bequests, and surpluses from public and business assets to students. Companies should find it easier to support local universities. Together with the universities, the party wants to review which legal changes follow from the COVID-19 pandemic. The science pacts (federal-state funding agreements) should be steered toward making positions permanent, and universities of applied sciences are to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to improve the digital equipment of universities, drawing on federal programs as well. This includes more digital workspaces on campus and better-equipped libraries.

The CDU wants better digital equipment at universities. Students should get more digital workspaces on campus. Libraries should become more digital too. Online degree programs should get as much money as other programs.

Additional digital workspaces are to be created where students can study alone or in small groups. The state initiative "hochschule.digital" is to continue and be linked with the federal program "Digitale Hochschule." Universities would in future receive the full Studienqualitätsmittel (funds for teaching quality) for students in online degree programs as well. University libraries, including lending, are to be expanded digitally so that rare items, for example, become easier to access.

The CDU wants to renovate and modernize university buildings through a dedicated construction program. The aim is to keep the space and technology for research and teaching up to date.

The CDU wants to renew university buildings. There should be a special building program for this. Research and teaching should have modern rooms and technology. Sometimes private companies should take part in the building work.

The plan is a university construction program for renovation and modernization. Where it makes economic sense and is workable for the universities, public-private partnerships are also to be used. Universities of applied sciences are to be strengthened, for example by cooperating with larger universities in the region on acting as the building owner.

The CDU wants to introduce students and doctoral candidates to starting a business early on and make studies more flexible for founders. It also focuses on STEM subjects, which it sees as a field of the future, and wants to attract more women to them.

The CDU wants more students to start a company. There should be courses on starting a business during studies. Students who start a company should be able to take a break or study part-time. The CDU also wants to strengthen STEM subjects. STEM means science, technology, engineering, and math.

Entrepreneurship training is to be offered early in degree programs, as a required elective in economics and natural science programs. Students who start a business during their studies should be able to take time off or study part-time. Doctoral candidates would get advice and courses preparing them for later self-employment. The CDU plans experimental labs and "future campus" projects at all universities with STEM institutes. More women are to be won over for STEM careers, academic careers, and starting businesses.

The CDU wants to amend Lower Saxony's university law so that universities, universities of applied sciences, and non-university institutes can more easily do research together. It sees exchange among these institutions as the basis of successful research in the state.

The CDU wants to change the law for universities. Universities, applied-science universities, and other research institutes should do more research together. The state should give special support to such alliances. The CDU also wants to keep basic research strong.

An amendment to the university law is to give special support to alliances between the different types of universities and non-university institutes. Lower Saxony's sites of national research organizations would continue to be supported. The CDU wants to build up research strength in the fields named, for example, in the Niedersachsen 2030 strategy and to set impulses in further key technologies. It commits to basic research and wants to strengthen its exchange with applied research.

The CDU wants to expand capacity in medical degree programs because many regions lack doctors. It plans up to 200 additional places in human medicine, 50 in dentistry and 20 in pharmacy.

Lower Saxony does not have enough doctors. So the CDU wants more university places for medicine. There should be up to 200 new places. Dentistry and pharmacy should get more places too.

Admission to medical school is to be based on a combination of grades, prior experience and a medical aptitude test. Universities are to get help in recruiting teaching practices and teaching hospitals as partners. Construction projects at Hannover Medical School and the University Medical Center Göttingen are to be carried out quickly, supported by 100 million euros a year for a special fund from 2024. In Oldenburg, a research building is to be finished by 2026 so that the site can grow to 200 places. The reform of the medical licensing regulations is to be completed without further delay.