CDU on education

The CDU wants Saarland's universities and research institutes to keep internationalizing and to attract more students from abroad. It justifies this with the importance for research, teaching and the export-oriented economy.

Universities in Saarland should become even more international. More young people from other countries should study there. The CDU says this helps research and the economy.

The program names as pillars the "trilingual campus" of the university and htw saar, the Franco-German University, and a new European School near the university for children of foreign researchers. Student numbers are to be maintained despite demographic trends, especially in STEM subjects. Digital formats and good on-site support are meant to offset losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The CDU notes that many graduates stay in the state as skilled workers.

The CDU wants to expand the university's Europe focus and the Franco-German institute at htw saar. Saarland's universities are to remain national leaders in Franco-German and trinational degree programs.

Universities in Saarland should teach a lot about Europe and France. The CDU wants to build on this strength. There should still be many degree programs with France.

The university is to win a collaborative research project on a European topic; the program points to its France center. The Franco-German institute at htw saar is to be anchored more broadly in the institution to manage a generational change. More cooperation with universities in French-speaking countries is planned, including through a Francophonie scholarship. For the Greater Region, the CDU highlights the "Border Studies" program.

The CDU stands by university autonomy and wants to keep steering through target and performance agreements. The broad range of disciplines, including the humanities, is to be preserved.

Universities should keep deciding for themselves. The state agrees on goals with them. All subjects should stay. This includes subjects like history or languages.

In the CDU's view, the agreements with Saarland University and htw saar provide planning certainty for the universities and the state while leaving room for short-notice responses. Together with the revised innovation strategy, they are meant to advance key areas in research, technology transfer and teaching. The party justifies keeping the broad range of subjects with the universities' responsibility to society.

The CDU wants to set up a joint doctoral college of Saarland University and htw saar with its own right to award doctorates. Research-active professors from the university of applied sciences would supervise dissertations there on equal terms.

The CDU wants a new institution for doctoral degrees. The university and the applied sciences school htw saar run it together. Professors from htw saar may also supervise doctoral work there.

The college is meant to support young researchers and set fixed requirements for supervising and reviewing dissertations. Both htw saar's research priorities and the university's quality assurance are to be taken into account. The CDU wants to create the legal basis by amending the Saarland Higher Education Act. It sees this as a continuation of the two institutions' existing cooperation platforms.

Citing a teacher shortage, the CDU wants more university places for primary school teaching and a new degree program at the university for teaching at special-needs schools. Digital content is to get more weight in all teacher training programs.

Saarland lacks teachers at primary schools and special-needs schools. So the CDU wants more study places. There should be a new degree for special-needs teachers. Future teachers should learn more about digital learning.

The special-needs degree program is to be created at Saarland University in the coming legislative term. Also planned are a professorship in computer science education, a stronger Forschungsinstitut Bildung Digital (research institute for digital education), and the use of artificial intelligence methods. For vocational school teaching, the university and htw saar are to cooperate more closely, and for arts subjects the music and fine arts academies. The phases of teacher training are to be more tightly linked.

The CDU wants to expand digital infrastructure and digital teaching at universities while keeping them as in-person institutions. Students who were set back by the pandemic are to get special learning support.

Universities should get better digital technology. Students should still learn on campus. Students who had problems because of the pandemic should get help.

Plans include a new data center on campus, further rollout of the campus management system, and links to high-performance computing networks. Academic libraries are also to be modernized digitally. Digital teaching is meant to broaden continuing education offered by the Continuing Education Center Saar, which the CDU also sees as a source of income for universities. The state award for university teaching is to continue with a focus on digital teaching.

The CDU wants planned construction and renovation projects at the universities and the university hospital carried out quickly. Buildings are to be modern, accessible and sustainable; public transit access to the Saarbrücken campus is also to improve.

The CDU wants to renew university buildings quickly or build new ones. The biggest project is a neuroscience center in Homburg. The Saarbrücken campus should be easier to reach by bus and train.

The program names the neuroscience center on the Homburg campus as the largest project, alongside buildings at the university in Saarbrücken and at htw saar in Alt-Saarbrücken. Further development is to follow structured master planning, including a campus development plan. For student housing near campus, the CDU points to a funding program for new construction and conversions. The party justifies the investments with the competition for researchers and students.

The CDU wants to put the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) on a broader financial and thematic footing. Research on sensor intelligence is also to be brought together in a dedicated focus area.

ZeMA is a research center in Saarland. The CDU wants more partners to put money into it. The center should get more research jobs from local companies. Research on smart sensors should come together in one place.

ZeMA is to take on new shareholders and handle more research contracts from Saarland companies. The sensor intelligence capacities of two Fraunhofer institutes (IZFP and IBMT) and Saarland University are to be pooled in one focus area to gain visibility and strength. The htw saar university of applied sciences is to back the topic of intelligent sensors through professorial appointments and a study specialization. The universities' expertise is also to be used for preventive planning against natural disasters and major damage events.

The CDU wants to strengthen research on new active substances by expanding the Helmholtz institute HIPS and creating a drug research center at Saarland University. It pledges state co-financing for a second Excellence Cluster application by the university.

The CDU wants more research on new medicines. The research institute HIPS should grow. The university should get its own center for drug research. The state will add money if the university wins a big funding contest.

The platform justifies the expansion with the importance of finding new active substances, especially against bacterial diseases. Research at INM and HIPS is to be linked with university medicine in Homburg and with computer science. The university, HIPS, INM and CISPA are to prepare a second application under the federal-state Excellence Strategy, and the state would pay its share if it is approved. Preclinical research is to receive continued support. For new licensing regulations in human and dental medicine and the shift of health professions to university-level training, the CDU, together with the other states, demands that the federal government share the costs.

The CDU wants to develop an overarching education strategy to make Saarland an attractive place for education by 2030. A new staff unit is to analyze problems and develop solutions.

The CDU wants a plan for education in Saarland. By 2030, Saarland should be a good place to learn. A new office will study the problems. It will also come up with new ideas.

The staff unit is to examine the state's particular challenges across all stages of education, assess existing initiatives and identify local needs. Mentoring programs and support for various groups, from daycare to vocational training, are planned. Regular conferences and a Saarland education report are to be added. The party places this under its school concept “Q+”, which is meant to stand for more profile, content and time.

The CDU wants to make further training for daycare staff and teachers more flexible in time and place. The platform sees lifelong learning as a precondition for keeping pace with change in schools and the economy.

Daycare staff and teachers should find it easier to take training courses. Courses should be possible at different times and places. There should also be fitting courses for people at work. The CDU says people must keep learning all their lives.

Targeted projects are also planned for those in charge of afternoon care at voluntary all-day schools. Vocational qualification is to offer individual training options. In response to structural change, the CDU wants effective further training concepts. The offers are to evolve as quickly as society and the working world.

The CDU wants to create a competence center for digital education at Saarland University that advises and trains teachers and helps with technical questions. Digitalization is to follow teaching concepts tailored to each target group.

The CDU wants to start a center for digital learning. It will be at Saarland University. The center advises teachers and offers courses. It also helps with questions about technology.

The center is to cooperate with the State Institute for Pedagogy and Media, the departments involved in teacher training and the state media authority. This is meant to form a network that also develops digital learning platforms and quality standards further. The platform stresses that daycare, school and vocational education each need their own concepts. Digitalization is described as no end in itself but something that has to be used sensibly.

The CDU wants to give children, teenagers and young adults targeted support in catching up on learning gaps caused by the pandemic. This is to be based on an ongoing assessment of the pandemic's effects.

Because of Covid, many children learned less. The CDU wants to help them catch up. There will be special learning offers for this. There will also be voluntary offers during school vacations.

Support is to be geared to each person's abilities and possibilities. Special teaching concepts, additional staff and better digital equipment for daycare centers and schools are planned. Voluntary extra offers are to be available during vacations as well over the coming years.

The CDU wants to keep Gymnasium (academic high school), Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) and vocational schools as three pillars and distinguish their profiles more clearly. Instead of fundamental disputes over pedagogy, it calls for peace on school structure and updated curricula.

Saarland has academic high schools, comprehensive schools and vocational schools. The CDU wants to keep all three. Each type of school should have its own clear goal. There should be no big fight over the school system.

Academic high schools are to focus more on readiness for university, with emphasis on scientific method, STEM, foreign languages and written work. Comprehensive schools are to prepare students for working life and for all types of diplomas; their own upper-level programs are protected and get a support concept from grade 10 on. Both school types are to be equal in class sizes, remedial teaching, staff and equipment, and switching between them is to stay easy. Curricula are also to teach skills such as creativity, collaboration and knowledge transfer. In comprehensive schools, the CDU wants to further develop smaller, ability-based learning groups in core subjects.

The CDU wants access to the Gymnasium (academic high school) to depend once again on a binding recommendation from the elementary school. According to the party, this is meant to prevent lotteries for places and wrong school choices.

After elementary school, parents pick a school for their child. The CDU wants the elementary school to decide again who may attend the academic high school. That way children should not end up at the wrong school. Drawing lots for places should also stop.

The recommendation is to become a requirement for attending the academic high school. The platform also sees a benefit for comprehensive schools because school choice would be tied to firmer criteria. To take account of personal hardship and individual problems, an additional arrangement is planned for children without a recommendation.

The CDU wants to add a year of learning at the Gymnasium (academic high school), so that the Abitur diploma is earned there after nine years, as at comprehensive schools. Weekly lesson hours are also to rise in order to teach more computer science, among other things.

At academic high schools, the path to the final diploma takes eight years today. The CDU wants one more year. Then it takes nine years, as at comprehensive schools. Students should have more time to learn.

The platform argues that a broad education, talents and personality need time to mature. The higher total of weekly lessons is meant to allow additional content in computer science and other subjects. The longer learning time is to be combined with new teaching concepts and modern content. In the party's view, thoroughness comes before speed.

The CDU wants to create positions for administrative assistants at schools who take organizational and bureaucratic work off teachers' hands. This is meant to let teachers focus more on teaching.

Teachers have a lot of office work. The CDU wants to hire extra staff at schools for this. These people take care of organizing and paperwork. Then teachers have more time for lessons.

According to the platform, administration, organization and technical demands increasingly keep teachers from teaching. The assistants are also to handle school internships, school health services, budget control and central administrative processes. They are also to manage cooperation with youth welfare offices, companies and chambers.

The CDU wants to review the system of performance assessment and ensure clear, comprehensible standards for grading. Especially gifted children are to receive more support starting in elementary school.

The CDU wants clear rules for school grades. Everyone should understand how a grade comes about. Comparison tests within a grade level should stay. Very gifted children should get more support.

Assessment is to strike a balance between traditional written and oral tests and alternative forms of evidence. Tests within a grade level are to remain so that results can be compared and quality assured. The counseling office for gifted students is to be kept and given more staff and better structures.

The CDU wants to expand all-day care and make the voluntary all-day school more attractive. Parents are to keep their freedom to choose. The "Flexible All-Day" model is to be extended to more schools.

The CDU wants more afternoon care at schools. Parents should decide which kind of care they want. A flexible model should come to more schools. Teachers should also help in the afternoon.

The platform points to the legal right to all-day care in elementary schools starting in 2026 and sees a need to adjust. It says the voluntary all-day school is the most requested form, so parental choice comes first. The "Flexible All-Day" pilot at five schools is to be rolled out to more locations. The CDU names conditions: good afternoon programs, extra teacher hours for homework help, a flexible budget for staff, and reliable care at the edges of the day. Teachers are to be assigned five weekly hours each in the afternoon.

The CDU wants to make Saarland multilingual, with German, French and English. The European School in Saarbrücken is to get a permanent site quickly. The Schengen-Lyzeum in Perl is also to become a European School.

The CDU wants people in Saarland to know three languages. These are German, French and English. A European School in Saarbrücken should be built quickly. The school in Perl should also become a European School.

The platform sees the international focus of the education system as a contribution to openness and competitiveness. The Institute for Languages and Multilingualism is to be involved more, beyond teacher training at the university. For the European School in Saarbrücken, the CDU calls for a site that appeals to foreign research staff and for fast construction. The Schengen-Lyzeum is to be developed further together with Luxembourg.

The CDU wants to shift the focus from hardware to good digitally supported teaching. Curricula are to be revised, the DigitalPakt Schule (federal-state school digitalization fund) expanded, and teachers trained continuously.

Schools already get digital devices. The CDU wants lessons with them to be good too. For this, the school plans should be rewritten. Teachers should keep learning about this.

According to the platform, the education ministry has so far focused on providing devices. The CDU calls for subject-specific content for all grades and clear goals for schools. The DigitalPakt Schule of the federal and state governments is to be expanded. A mentoring concept is planned, with subject-related and cross-subject training that can be used anywhere at any time. Teachers are also to get pedagogical and technical tutoring when using digital media.

The CDU wants to strengthen the "Früh Deutsch lernen" (Learn German Early) program and keep the preparatory courses in the last year of kindergarten statewide. Language support in daycare centers is also to be expanded.

Some children do not speak German well before school starts. The CDU wants to help these children early. They learn German in small groups half a year before school. Daycare centers should also offer more language help.

The preparatory courses in the last kindergarten year are to remain available everywhere in Saarland. Future first-graders with too little German get targeted lessons in small groups half a year before school starts. Specially assigned language support teachers give these lessons. The CDU also wants to extend language support in daycare centers.

The CDU wants to keep the choice between inclusive classes at regular schools and special-needs schools. Special-needs schools are to stay independent and be expanded or newly built where needed. School kindergartens are to return for children not yet ready for school.

Children with special needs can go to a regular school or a special school today. The CDU wants parents to keep this choice. Special schools should stay. New ones should be built if needed. Children who are not ready for school should get school kindergartens.

The platform considers the current approach proven: inclusion measures, well-equipped special-needs schools, and more special-needs teachers at regular schools. Clear diagnostics are meant to prevent breaks when children move from daycare to school or between schools. School kindergartens are to be set up in all school regions, modeled on the reintroduced language support classes. The inclusion regulation is to be reviewed and adjusted based on practical experience. The chapter heading contrasts individual support with "ideology."

The CDU wants to develop new, interactive continuing-education programs and build a tool that matches workers' skills with companies' needs. This is meant to support the region's economic transformation.

The world of work is changing fast. The CDU wants better courses for working people. A program should show what workers can do and what companies need. Then everyone gets fitting courses.

The platform says simple standardized e-learning is no longer enough. A so-called need-skill matching program is to analyze workers' potential and create qualification profiles from which suitable courses follow. Researchers, businesses, training providers and labor and employer groups are to exchange views regularly. A planned staff unit for innovation in education is to coordinate this, together with the chambers and the Gesellschaft für Transformationsmanagement. Skilled trades are to take on workers who lose jobs in the transformation, supported by retraining.

The CDU wants to set up an institute for vocational education that pools responsibilities and removes duplicate structures. Vocational schools are to keep their full range of programs and get a push in digitalization.

The CDU wants a new institute for job training. All partners work together there. Vocational schools should stay and become more digital. More young people should become teachers at vocational schools.

The institute is to bring all partners in vocational education into one unit, including schools, chambers, training companies, teacher training seminars and ministries. It could become part of the planned Saarland education campus. Vocational schools are to keep offering degrees from the basic school certificate to the bachelor's, and their teachers are to be trained for digitalization. An information campaign is meant to attract school graduates to teaching at vocational schools. For the school-to-work transition system, the CDU calls for more staff, including special-needs teachers and social workers.

The CDU wants to bring early-intervention centers and the offices for integration together in one system. It also wants more inclusive daycare centers so that children are cared for without interruptions.

Children who need extra support should get help early. The CDU wants to combine two kinds of help centers. Help should be simple and close to home. There should be more daycare centers for children with and without disabilities.

According to the platform, early-intervention centers are often the first point of contact for help and advice. Merging them with the offices for integration is meant to make support fit better and be easy to reach close to home. The CDU justifies expanding inclusive daycare by saying the first years of life matter most for social skills. For that reason there should be no gaps in care.

The CDU wants to thoroughly evaluate the current school inclusion regulation and then revise it. Special-needs schools are also to get reliable afternoon and vacation care.

There are rules for children learning together at school. The CDU wants to check these rules and then change them. Experts should find out early, in daycare, what help a child needs. Special-needs schools should offer care in the afternoon and during vacations.

The evaluation is to draw on the experience of the school community. To improve the move from kindergarten to school, the CDU wants to use data from examinations, tests and records while respecting data protection. The platform names expert diagnostics, starting in daycare and at the transition to elementary school, as the basis for successful inclusion.

The CDU wants to make French a required subject from first grade and promote multilingualism starting in daycare. Multilingual training and degree programs as well as international schools are to be strengthened so that people from Saarland can work and live anywhere in Europe.

All children should learn French from first grade. Children should already meet foreign languages in daycare. For this, the CDU wants to recruit childcare workers who are native French speakers. There should be more training and degree programs in several languages.

From fifth grade, students are to be able to continue from this shared foundation according to need and interest. Continuing education for childcare workers is to be expanded substantially, along with an initiative to recruit native-speaker staff. The Europäische Schule Saarland, the Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium and the Schengen-Lyzeum are to be strengthened, and Saarland University supported. Besides English, other foreign languages are to be offered, and the neighbors' language should also be learnable through digital and hybrid formats.

The CDU wants to launch an initiative for vocational training across the border. The training agreement between Saarland and Lorraine is to be developed further and extended to other partners in the Greater Region.

Young people should be able to do their job training in a neighboring country too. The CDU wants to do more for this. An agreement with Lorraine already exists. It should also cover other neighbors. Trainees should do internships abroad more often.

There is to be enough staff and money for support and advice. The CDU will examine a placement agency run jointly by two or three countries. Curricula and training regulations are to give more prominence to internships in the neighboring country. The platform sees great potential for both sides in the shared labor market.