CDU on education

The CDU wants to introduce an exercise lesson together with all-day schooling. Sports clubs and other providers are to take part. All-day programs in elementary school are also to be well developed and of high quality.

The CDU wants an exercise lesson at schools. Children should move and play sports there. The lesson is part of all-day school. That is school with activities in the afternoon. Sports clubs should help.

The exercise lesson is to come together with all-day programs at schools. For implementation, the platform relies on cooperation with clubs and other providers. The CDU also names well-developed, high-quality all-day programs at elementary schools as a way to support children with their strengths and weaknesses.

The CDU wants to significantly expand the practice-integrated training program (PiA) for childcare workers and introduce a training wage. In the medium term, this is to become a dual vocational program. The aim is to meet the growing demand for daycare staff.

The CDU wants to train more childcare workers. They should get paid during training. The training should be offered in every county. Later it should take place at school and at work at the same time. This is called dual training.

PiA training is to be offered in every county and independent city, at several sites in densely populated areas if needed. The platform calls it a success and points to the doubling of sites to eleven vocational schools since 2019. Training places for social-pedagogical assistants (SPA) are also to increase. In addition, the CDU wants to make it easier to recognize people from related occupations as qualified staff.

The CDU wants to pilot a screening of children at age four and a half to identify special educational needs early. Daycare centers and elementary schools are to cooperate and introduce joint support programs.

The CDU wants to screen children at four and a half years old. This will be tested first. It shows early on whether a child needs help. It is about language and movement. Daycare and elementary school should then help together.

The screening is initially to take place as a pilot in cooperation between daycare centers and elementary schools. The aim is to respond early to deficits in language and motor skills. For this, support programs offered jointly by both institutions are planned. The platform calls it a priority that every child receives the support that matches his or her individual needs.

The CDU wants an inclusion drive for daycare centers so that inclusion is practiced in all facilities. Specialists from various fields are to support staff and parents on site.

The CDU wants more inclusion in daycare. Inclusion means children with and without disabilities are together. This should be the case in all daycare centers in the state. Specialists should help staff and parents.

According to the platform, the idea of inclusion must become part of everyday life in daycare. The drive is meant to make this happen across the state. Experts from different fields are to assist staff and parents in the facilities. The CDU also wants to improve the quality of inclusion overall and implement it in a tailored way.

The CDU wants daycare centers (Kitas) to prepare children more deliberately for school. An "Education Plus" program and binding educational standards are meant to achieve this.

The CDU wants daycare to prepare children better for school. There will be a new program for this. All daycare centers will follow fixed rules on learning.

The program is meant to build early skills for reading, writing and math and to give children access to science. Existing training projects from Schleswig-Holstein such as "Versuch macht klug" can be included. Media and nutrition skills, cultural education and early music education are also to be taught early. The CDU also wants to trial a check-up of children aged four and a half, run jointly by daycare centers and elementary schools.

The CDU wants to introduce education for sustainable development and democracy education in every daycare center in the state. It also wants more nature daycare centers and closer cooperation with cultural institutions.

Children should learn about the environment and democracy in daycare. This should happen in every daycare center in the state. The CDU also wants more nature daycare centers. Daycare centers should work more with cultural institutions.

According to the platform, children should get to know future-oriented topics through play and have more of a say in daycare. The CDU wants to support the expansion of nature and forest daycare centers together with municipalities and associations. Artistic activities such as music, dance or visual arts are to be offered to children from their earliest years. To that end, ties with cultural institutions outside daycare are to grow.

The CDU wants children in daycare and elementary schools to be more physically active. It argues that play and sports have a lasting positive effect on the health of children and teenagers.

Children should move more. This applies to daycare and elementary school. The CDU says exercise is good for health. Elementary schools will have one exercise lesson every week.

Daycare staff are to receive further training and optional training modules in sports and movement so that daily activity time increases. The program "Kinder in Bewegung" including "Kein Kind ohne Sport" is to continue. Every elementary school is to offer at least one weekly activity lesson in its all-day program, on top of physical education, where possible together with sports clubs or adult education centers. Redesigning schoolyards and school rooms is also to receive funding.

The CDU wants to establish a professorship for early childhood education in Schleswig-Holstein. It is to come with a dual bachelor's program and a master's program.

The CDU wants to create a new professorship. It will deal with education for young children. Two new degree programs will go with it.

According to the platform, the professorship is meant to help reach the full range of educational goals for daycare. The bachelor's program is designed as a dual program, combining study and practical work. A master's program is planned in addition.

The CDU wants to add one lesson per week in each of the first two grades of elementary school to strengthen German and math. Small elementary school sites are to keep receiving state support.

Children in grades 1 and 2 will get one more lesson. The lesson is for German and math. Small elementary schools should stay open. The state will help them.

Children's strengths and weaknesses are to be recorded early with simple diagnostic tools so that support needs are spotted and addressed without stigma. In grades 3 and 4, basic computer science, media skills and cultural education are to get more room, also with partners from outside school. Small school sites are to receive extra state funding under the principle "short legs, short distances." Closer cooperation between schools is meant to ease the move to secondary school.

The CDU wants to develop the Gymnasium (academic-track school) and the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) as equally valued school types, each with its own profile. At comprehensive schools, learning groups are to be split by ability and final exams made mandatory for all.

The CDU wants to keep both school types. The Gymnasium prepares students for university. The Gemeinschaftsschule prepares students for all diplomas. There, students will learn in ability groups from grade 7.

The Gymnasium is to prepare students for academic study and stand for achievement, while the Gemeinschaftsschule prepares for all diplomas and especially for vocational training. In core subjects, comprehensive schools are to form basic-level and advanced-level groups from seventh grade; in other subjects this stays optional. All students there are to sit the exams for both the first general diploma and the intermediate diploma, partly to reduce the number leaving without a diploma. Career guidance with an aptitude assessment from grade 7 and a more even spread of routes to the Abitur across the state are also planned.

The CDU wants computer science to be a required subject at every secondary school starting in fifth grade. The aim is to familiarize students early with skills for the future.

All students should learn computer science. The subject will be required from grade 5. The CDU wants to train more teachers for it.

Media education is to remain a task for all subjects alongside this. To have enough teachers, the CDU wants to continue the ongoing computer science training drive and win IT professionals from business and public administration as partners. Computer science is to be firmly anchored in teacher training, with study places also at the Europa-Universität. A professorship for digital education and artificial intelligence in education is also planned.

The CDU wants to strengthen foreign-language teaching and try out new models such as bilingual and heritage-language classes. International school options are to be created in the state's large cities.

Students should be able to learn more foreign languages. Children from immigrant families should also be able to learn their family's language. Large cities should have international schools.

The platform counts foreign languages, alongside digital skills, among the skills for the future. Bilingual teaching, meaning subject lessons taught in a foreign language, is to be tried as a new model. For children and teenagers from immigrant families, classes in the languages of their countries of origin are to grow. The CDU sees a need for international school options in the state's large cities.

The CDU wants to anchor economic education and a startup culture at secondary schools across the state. STEM offerings such as student labs and the MINT-Akademie (STEM academy) are also to be expanded.

Students should learn how the economy works. They should also learn how to start a business. The CDU also wants more offers for math, computer science, science and technology.

The Entrepreneurship Education concept, already launched, includes revised subject requirements as well as projects and campaigns and is to apply statewide. The CDU says it is also about independence and project-based thinking, not only about business ownership. Student labs and the STEM academy are to grow and be evaluated, with similar support planned for elementary schools. Out-of-school learning sites such as the Multimar Wattforum in Tönning and the Phänomenta in Flensburg are to link schools with universities and companies.

The CDU wants to give independently run schools more support with teaching permits and with finding qualified staff. Parent and student councils are also to get better conditions for their work.

The CDU wants to support private schools. They should find teachers more easily. Parent and student representatives should also be able to work better.

The CDU points out that it substantially raised funding for independent schools in recent years. A new concept is meant to make it easier for staff to work at these schools while keeping quality standards for their qualification. The party wants to further improve conditions for parent and student councils in talks with those bodies.

The CDU wants to keep teaching coverage above 100 percent permanently in order to reduce canceled lessons. An alliance for teacher education is meant to help recruit more teachers, especially in shortage subjects.

There should be enough teachers so fewer lessons are canceled. The CDU wants to recruit more teachers. Teachers are especially missing in math, computer science and science. An alliance will improve teacher training.

The alliance for teacher education is to launch measures for better teacher training and for recruiting teachers with solid training in teaching methods for all school types. Making the teacher education law and civil service law more flexible is to be examined. At the universities and at the IQSH (the state institute for school quality development), the CDU wants to ensure excellence in both the quality and the scale of training. Cohorts whose training was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are to get temporary extra support after their practical training phase.

The CDU wants to require teachers to document at least 15 hours of continuing education each year. Digital education is to get a fixed place in both initial training and continuing education.

Teachers will have to take further training every year. It must be at least 15 hours a year. They should mainly learn more about digital teaching.

The platform provides for reduced teaching loads to make room for the additional mandatory training. Teacher training is to get new required modules on digital teaching and media education. A regionally based network of digital competence centers is to offer schools tailored advice and training. Each school is to hold one additional, mandatory school development day per school year on digital education.

The CDU wants to expand all-day programs at elementary schools by the 2026/27 school year so that the legal entitlement to all-day care can be met step by step. The state and the federal government are to help school authorities pay for rooms and staff.

The CDU wants more all-day school for young children. All-day school means children are also cared for in the afternoon. There should be enough places by 2026/27. The state and the federal government should pay part of the cost.

Clubs, associations, youth services, sports and cultural education providers are to be brought into all-day programs, along with nutrition, exercise and prevention. Training capacity for skilled staff is to keep growing as needed, and better staff development and attractive contracts are meant to reduce turnover. The state is to subsidize transport to out-of-school learning sites, with school authorities paying a share. For grades 5 and 6, the CDU wants to examine how reliable all-day programs can be secured step by step. All-day topics are to become part of teacher training and continuing education.

The CDU wants to keep supporting school authorities with building and renovating schools beyond 2023. This is to be accompanied by a model room plan and new state school-construction advisers.

The CDU wants to keep giving money for school buildings. This should continue after 2023. There should be advisers for school construction. They will mainly help small school authorities.

Together with the associations of local governments, a model room plan is to be developed as a recommendation for the classroom of the future, including ventilation. State school-construction advisers are to guide small school authorities in particular through renovation and new construction. New buildings are to provide more permanent workspaces for teachers and take digital teaching and accessibility into account. The CDU wants to examine how sustainable construction can be made possible and to evaluate how heritage protection is handled in school buildings.

The CDU wants to continue and further develop the program that gives extra funding to schools in socially challenging areas. This includes more German-language courses, also for parents, and breakfast at these schools.

Some schools have a harder job than others. They get extra money. The CDU wants to keep this program. There should be more German classes, also for parents. These schools should also offer breakfast.

The Perspektivschulen (schools receiving extra support) are to continue and be developed further after a successful evaluation. The platform justifies this with equal educational opportunities for every child. Additional courses in German as a second or foreign language are also to be open to parents and families of elementary school children, which the CDU says promotes integration. The party also wants to push for breakfast to be offered at these schools.

The CDU wants to permanently offer school-based learning and care programs during vacations. It points out that such programs proved their worth in the post-COVID catch-up program.

The CDU wants learning programs during school vacations. They should be offered permanently. Children can learn there and are looked after. The federal government should keep helping to pay.

The programs are to be linked with learning sites outside school. Both lower-achieving and high-achieving or especially gifted students are to be supported. The CDU wants to press the federal government to keep catch-up and vacation programs after the pandemic and to co-fund them.

The CDU wants to launch a pilot project for free hygiene products at secondary schools. It argues that the cost and insecurity associated with menstruation can keep girls away from class.

The CDU wants to start a trial at schools. Schools would offer free period products. Otherwise some girls miss class. The CDU wants to prevent that.

The plan is designed as a pilot project and applies to secondary schools. According to the platform, both the cost of menstrual products and the insecurity that comes with menstruation can lead girls to stay away from class. The project is meant to prevent that.

The CDU wants to pool individual student aides, school assistants and school social work in joint teams with regional budgets and expand them statewide. It argues that school has long been more than a place for teaching knowledge and therefore needs other professions alongside teachers.

Schools do not only have teachers. There are also aides for individual children and social workers. The CDU wants to bring these people together in one team. Each region gets a fixed budget for this. There should be more such teams across the state.

School assistance and individual student support are to be treated as one combined service; special education and school social work also belong to the team. School assistants are to be expanded on the basis of the October 2020 evaluation report. School social work is to be integrated while keeping its professional independence and expanded in the medium term with the federal government, the state and municipalities. The state, counties and independent cities are to agree on budgets based on data and distribution criteria; according to the platform, pilot sites show greater cost efficiency. Regional training on team development is to grow.

The CDU wants to create more positions for special education teachers and introduce binding statewide standards for inclusion. The benchmark remains a 2016 expert report that puts the need at 493 additional positions.

Inclusion means children with and without disabilities learn together. The CDU wants to hire more special teachers for this. The same fixed rules should apply across the state. The job should become more attractive.

The platform notes that 350 additional special education teachers were already hired in the last legislative term. The CDU wants to promote the degree program and make the profession more attractive. Job descriptions are to set clear responsibilities so that these specialists can give concrete support to teachers at regular schools. From 2025, secondary schools may test using school assistants instead of additional special education teachers. Parents are to receive support and red tape is to be reduced.

The CDU wants to keep Förderzentren (special needs centers) with their own students so that individual support is available there when needed. In addition, learning groups are to be created for children with special needs in emotional and social development.

Förderzentren are schools for children who need special support. The CDU wants to keep these schools. There should also be new learning groups. They are for children with behavior problems. Later these children should return to their class.

One such learning group per region is to be set up at selected schools. Teachers from regular and special schools work there with social education workers; the goal is for the children to return to regular classes. Regional training, statewide professional exchange and evaluations are meant to strengthen the networks. Schooling in hospitals is to be restructured and expanded.

The CDU wants to systematically identify, train and develop leaders in schools and reform how leadership posts are filled. School supervision, especially the local school offices, is to be strengthened.

The CDU wants better training for principals. It wants to find teachers early who can lead well. The way leaders are chosen should be changed. Local school offices should be able to give more support.

A staff reserve for leadership posts is planned, with mandatory preparation courses and a potential assessment. Such posts are to be filled and paid according to the task rather than the career track. Administrative managers employed by the state are to be tested at large schools. School authorities are to have a say in the new procedure for appointing principals. The CDU will examine whether relief hours need to be adjusted to increased duties; teaching with new media is also to have verifiable quality criteria.

The CDU wants to continue and expand career guidance programs on a permanent basis. Jugendberufsagenturen (youth employment agencies) are to be set up in all regions of the state to support the transition from school to work.

Students should learn about jobs early. The CDU wants more programs for this. There should be youth employment agencies everywhere in the state. They help young people start their working life.

Programs for exploring occupational fields, coaching and potential assessment are to run reliably and without a time limit. Flex classes, in which students take the first general school certificate only after ten school years, are to grow as needed. Facilities for productive learning for young people without a certificate are to be set up at more locations. The CDU also affirms vocational education as an educational path in its own right.

The CDU wants to introduce a statewide identifier for students. It is meant to improve education reporting and make changes within a student's educational path less bureaucratic.

Every student should get their own number. The CDU calls this a student ID. It should make changing schools easier. The state also wants better figures on education this way.

The CDU's goal is for the identifier to be usable nationwide. It also wants to examine whether the ID can be used and extended to improve transitions and cooperation within the youth employment agencies.

The CDU wants to keep the six types of vocational schools and secure dual vocational training with a master plan. Vocational schools are to be equipped to modern standards and able to work digitally.

The CDU wants to strengthen vocational schools. All six types of vocational school should stay. A plan should secure classes in rural areas too. The schools should get good equipment.

The master plan is to be drawn up by the state institute for vocational education (SHIBB) with other partners to secure vocational school classes in centers and across rural areas. Classes should be held in person where possible; digital formats will be examined as a way to keep small classes in rural areas and in less popular occupations. Counties and independent cities are to get help with labs and workshops through possible school construction programs. All students are to work with a learning management system. Teachers at general schools are to learn more about vocational education, and the CDU wants to talk with the chambers about housing for apprentices.

The CDU wants to make it easier to move between school-based vocational training, apprenticeships, and university by having qualifications credited across these paths. It also plans to found an open vocational university that links apprenticeships with higher education.

The CDU wants school and job training to count everywhere. What you learn at a vocational school should count in an apprenticeship. A job qualification should also count at university. The CDU also wants a new open vocational university.

Vocational qualifications earned entirely in school, for example at a Berufsfachschule, are to be credited toward a dual apprenticeship. Vocational qualifications are in turn to count in matching degree programs. For the open vocational university, vocational schools, universities of applied sciences, and continuing education through oncampus are to work more closely together. The state institute for vocational education (SHIBB) would coordinate these pathways; the CDU wants to evaluate it, keep it, and make it more professional.

The CDU wants to give above-average support to technical and science-oriented tracks at vocational schools. It justifies this with the shortage of skilled workers in STEM occupations.

Technical jobs lack many skilled workers. So the CDU wants to give extra support to technical subjects at vocational schools. STEM means science, technology, engineering, and math. Training for ship officers should also get better.

The focus is on vocational high schools with technical specializations and vocational computer science, as well as the technology specialization in other tracks. According to the platform, these help meet demand in industrial and technical trades and in engineering. Training for nautical and technical ship officers is also to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to launch an app that shows training and career paths and makes open apprenticeship and internship positions visible. It is also meant to help university dropouts move into an apprenticeship faster.

The CDU wants an app that helps people choose a career. The app shows which jobs and training paths exist. It also shows open apprenticeships and internships. It should promote apprenticeships in companies in particular.

The app is meant to show the range of possible paths and list concrete entry offers such as open apprenticeship positions. The goal is to publicize apprenticeships and internships more quickly. People who drop out of university should find their way into the training market faster. Dual apprenticeships are to be promoted especially in the app.

The CDU wants fewer young people to leave vocational schools without a qualification. To that end, training-preparation programs and vocational integration classes are to be further developed.

Some young people leave vocational school without a qualification. The CDU wants this to happen less often. Preparation classes should get better. Young people should start an apprenticeship in a company sooner.

The transition sector covers programs between school and an apprenticeship. The platform points out that, on the national average, too many young people leave it without a qualification. The programs are to be changed so that young people move into a dual apprenticeship faster. They are also to get more support in completing their training.

The CDU wants to recruit more teachers for vocational schools and keep classroom staffing above 100 percent. To do so, teacher demand is to be forecast for these schools as well, and career-changer routes into teaching are to become more attractive.

Vocational schools lack teachers. The CDU wants to win more people for this job. People from companies should be able to become teachers more easily. There should still be enough lessons.

The teacher demand forecast is to be extended to vocational schools, with further steps developed together with the Allianz für Lehrkräftebildung (alliance for teacher training). The focus is on shortage subjects: social pedagogy, information technology, and electrical, metal, and automotive engineering. The practical training phase is to be tailored more closely to vocational education and made attractive for people coming from industry. The CDU wants to examine how to make work as a subject teacher more attractive and create promotion paths. The dual degree program at Europa-Universität Flensburg is to be evaluated and developed further if needed.

The CDU wants to draw up a statewide strategy for continuing education and write it into law. Funding, digital offerings, and networking among providers are to be developed further so that continuing education carries more weight in people's educational paths.

The CDU wants a plan for adult learning in the state. Adult learning means grown-ups learn new things for work or daily life. The plan should be written into a law. There should be a website with courses. The course providers should work together more closely.

Adult education centers, training providers, business, vocational schools, and universities are to take part in the strategy. The state's continuing education act is to be reviewed and reformed where needed, including with regard to funding. A state platform for continuing education is planned that connects to the federal government's planned education platform. There would also be networking meetings at county and state level and a statewide continuing education conference. The CDU wants to push for uniform national certification rules and to examine a continuing education master's degree in artificial intelligence in Lübeck.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for merging BAföG (student aid) and Aufstiegs-BAföG (aid for career advancement training) and for lifting the age limit. Aid should also depend less on parents' income.

BAföG is state money for students and trainees. The CDU wants older people to be able to get BAföG too. BAföG should depend less on how much the parents earn. Two kinds of BAföG should become one.

Aufstiegs-BAföG supports advanced vocational training such as the master craftsman qualification. The two types of aid are to be merged into one. Aid should also be available beyond the current age limit. The CDU describes the goal as developing BAföG in a way that favors continuing education.

The CDU wants to expand basic education centers in order to lower the share of adults who cannot read and write well enough. People who catch up on their first general school diploma at a continuing education institution should no longer pay fees for it.

Some adults cannot read and write well. The CDU wants more places where they can learn this. These places are called basic education centers. Adults who catch up on their first school diploma should not have to pay.

According to the platform, more than seven percent of adults cannot read and write sufficiently. That rate is to fall through regional, easily accessible offerings. In the long run, every county and every independent city is to have such a center. School fees for the first general diploma at continuing education institutions are to be abolished.

The CDU wants to keep increasing university funding year by year in order to reach adequate core financing. The money remains tied to target agreements and the university contract. The platform justifies this with new demands from digitalization, AI, and sustainability.

Universities should get more money every year. The CDU says the money is not yet enough. In return, universities agree on goals with the state. Private universities should also be able to get funding.

According to the platform, adequate financing of core budgets has not yet been reached despite the increases of recent years. The funds are also meant to allow new degree programs to be developed. Target agreements form the framework within which universities and university medicine develop on their own responsibility. For private universities, the CDU wants to push mainly at the federal level for equal access to funding programs.

The CDU wants to create the conditions at universities for significantly more people to complete a teaching degree, especially in shortage subjects. The reason is the forecast high demand at elementary schools and particularly at Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive-type secondary schools).

The state will need many new teachers. So the CDU wants to train more people to become teachers. Universities get money for this. Digital topics should matter more in the degree.

The CDU relies on the state's forecast of teacher demand. Teaching degrees are to place a focus on digital challenges. The Allianz für Lehrkräfte (alliance for teachers) is to receive the necessary funds, and this money is to be moved into the universities' core budgets.

The CDU wants to provide more money for university buildings and for research buildings in university medicine. It will examine a dedicated property agency for university buildings in order to clear the investment backlog. Renovations are to be used to upgrade the buildings' energy performance.

Many university buildings need to be renewed. The CDU wants to give more money for this. It is looking at a separate agency for these buildings. It would build and maintain them. Later the buildings should run without harming the climate.

The property agency under review would take over the universities' real estate and be responsible for construction and upkeep. Expansion and renovation of the university hospital UKSH and other teaching hospitals are to continue, building on the Zukunftspakt UKSH (future pact). In the process, university buildings are to be renovated for energy efficiency and later run climate-neutrally. As an example, the platform cites an energy concept using geothermal heat at the Bremerskamp site of Kiel University.

The CDU wants to launch a Digital-Pakt Hochschule (digital pact for universities) together with the federal government to improve universities' digital equipment. In addition, the digital skills of teaching staff and students are to be strengthened and more state funds provided.

Universities should get better digital technology. The CDU wants a joint federal and state program for this. It is called Digital-Pakt Hochschule. Teachers and students should get better at using digital tools. Libraries should become more digital too.

The platform points to the push the coronavirus pandemic gave to digital teaching and research. The pact is to be set up as a joint federal-state program. Accompanying research projects are to study how effective new teaching formats are. The digitalization of libraries is to continue.

The CDU wants to promote top-level research with a state excellence strategy and a dedicated budget. The main focus is on Kiel University (Christian-Albrechts-Universität) becoming a University of Excellence.

The CDU wants to give special support to very good research in the state. There should be a plan and separate money for this. Kiel University should become a University of Excellence. That is a title for especially strong universities in Germany.

The strategy is to cover universities, non-university research institutes, and the university hospital UKSH. Existing strong research fields are to keep receiving support, and promising new projects are to be funded early. Universities are to get help in winning further projects such as clusters of excellence under the joint federal-state Excellence Strategy. The CDU also wants to promote applied top-level research and give teaching staff at universities of applied sciences more relief from teaching duties for research.

The CDU wants to strengthen research institutes outside the universities and bring more departments and branch offices to the state. To this end it plans a Fraunhofer strategy and a dedicated state budget. Lübeck is to become a center for AI in medicine and medical technology.

There are research institutes outside the universities. The CDU wants to bring more of them to the state. The state should set aside its own money for this. There should be a special plan for the Fraunhofer institutes. Lübeck should become a strong place for AI in medicine.

A new Fraunhofer research group on electronic energy systems is to be founded at the Faculty of Engineering of Kiel University to strengthen industry-oriented research on the energy transition. The Lübeck branch of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence is to keep receiving support. The Leibniz institute IPN is to get help building a department for computer science education, as recommended by the German Science and Humanities Council. The CDU wants to promote the state as a research location at the federal level. It also wants to advocate more support for research and development in private companies.

The CDU wants to fund top-level applied research at all types of universities. The focus is on energy transition and hydrogen research as well as digitalization and artificial intelligence. In the medium term, a dedicated competence center for energy transition research is to be created.

The CDU wants more research at universities. The research should be useful in practice. Key topics are energy, hydrogen and artificial intelligence. Later, there should be a center for energy transition research.

At universities of applied sciences, teaching staff are to get considerably more scope for reduced teaching loads so that more time is left for research and transfer. The hydrogen competence center HY.SH is to be developed further with all of the state's research institutions. The CDU wants to continue the KI-SIGS joint project and QuantumBay, a quantum computing network. The Future Skills learning platform and the Digital Learning Campus are meant to teach digital and AI skills. In AI application centers, project ideas from companies are to be developed jointly.

The CDU wants to keep the statewide semester ticket permanently and ensure that more students complete their degrees. Psychosocial counseling at universities is to grow considerably because, in the party's view, the Covid measures put heavy strain on students. Teaching is to take place mainly in person.

The CDU wants to keep the semester ticket. Fewer students should drop out. There should be more counseling for mental stress. Teaching at universities should mostly happen on site.

As tools against dropping out, the platform lists online self-assessments before enrollment, better subject advising before registration and a placement platform for students who want to quit. The round table on study success is to continue. A subject-specific orientation semester is to be examined. Young people from families without an academic background should attend university more often; to that end, the CDU wants to promote university study in career guidance at schools and expand support at the start of studies.

The CDU wants to give universities more responsibility of their own and amend the Higher Education Act for that purpose. The extended senate is to be abolished. At the same time, universities are to reach further into society, among other things through places for science communication.

The CDU wants universities to decide more on their own. For this, the university law should be changed. One body, the extended senate, should be dropped. There should also be places where everyone can experience research.

The reform is to examine more flexibility in hiring staff, letting universities act as their own building owners, lower hurdles for the option clause and rules for closer cooperation with business. Cooperation with municipalities and civil society organizations is to grow in a targeted way. A statewide concept is to review existing science communication offerings and lead to flagship institutions at university locations. The platform names the Phänomenta in Flensburg and the Multimar Wattforum in Tönning as models. The CDU also wants to seek federal funds for this.

The CDU rejects civil clauses at universities, meaning self-commitments to conduct research only for civilian purposes. It also rejects requirements to use gender-inclusive language, especially when they affect how exams are graded. It bases this on academic freedom and on official spelling rules.

Some universities want to do research only for peaceful purposes. This is called a civil clause. The CDU is against it. It is also against rules that require gender-inclusive language. This should not affect exam grades in particular.

According to the platform, academic freedom applies to every member of a university. The CDU considers civil clauses and gender-language requirements incompatible with that freedom or with the rules on German spelling set by the Kultusministerkonferenz (conference of state education ministers). In its view, universities should be places with an open climate and mutual respect.

The CDU opposes the wearing of a burqa or niqab in university classes and exams. It sees this clothing as a sign of the oppression of women and considers visible facial expressions and gestures necessary.

A burqa and a niqab cover the face. The CDU does not want this in university classes and exams. It says this clothing stands for the oppression of women. People should be able to see each other's faces when they talk.

The platform describes the university as a free place of equal rights. In the CDU's view, full-face veils are not compatible with this. According to the party, open communication at universities requires that gestures and facial expressions can be seen.

The CDU wants to introduce first aid and resuscitation courses in school lessons. It also calls for more physical activity during the school day, healthy school lunches and condom vending machines at secondary schools. The platform points to the effects of too little exercise and to Scandinavian countries as a model for first aid training.

Children should learn first aid at school. They should move more during the school day. School lunches should be healthy. Secondary schools should have condom vending machines. This is how the CDU wants to improve children's health.

Beyond physical education classes, activity is to be encouraged in other subjects, during breaks, in after-school care and on the way to school, for example through play equipment and large enough schoolyards. As all-day schooling expands, the CDU sees balanced school meals as even more important. Pilot projects on health and nutrition education are to be supported in teacher training, schools and adult education. The party also wants to support sports programs in daycare centers and clubs. Condom machines are meant to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

The CDU wants to introduce a mandatory civic service year at secondary schools, lasting one school year. The aim is to introduce young people to volunteering early on.

The CDU wants a civic year at schools. Students then help at a club or group for one school year. They do this one afternoon a week. Everyone has to take part.

During that school year, students are to get involved once a week in the afternoon, for a set amount of time, in a volunteer organization of their choice. Their experiences are to be discussed regularly in class. In the list of concrete plans, the platform says the options for such a year will be examined.

The CDU wants to strengthen democracy education in daycare centers and schools and add one hour of compulsory instruction in economics and politics (WiPo) in lower secondary school. The platform cites populism, conspiracy theories and falling voter turnout as reasons.

The CDU wants more civic education. Children should learn about democracy even in daycare. Schools should teach one more hour of economics and politics. Children and teenagers should learn more about extremism.

The additional fifth WiPo hour is to focus on historical and political education. Students should be able to talk directly with politicians outside of election campaigns too. Education about extremism and cybercrime is to be stepped up using modern media, and special projects for young people in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods will be considered. The state commissioner for civic education, education providers, political foundations and the association of political youth organizations are to be strengthened. Every school is to permanently display the flags of the EU, Germany and Schleswig-Holstein.

The CDU wants to keep religious education in schools organized by denomination and points to its protection under the Basic Law. It also plans an initiative for more dialogue among religions and with non-believers.

The CDU wants to keep religion classes in school. Children should learn about their own religion. They should also learn about other religions. The CDU also wants more talks between the religions.

According to the platform, both religion and philosophy classes should also deal with other beliefs and values. The CDU wants an ongoing exchange with religious communities about the subject requirements. The university programs in Christian theology in Kiel and Flensburg are to keep receiving support. The dialogue initiative is meant to bring together people of all ages and cultures, because in the party's view knowledge about other people's religion is often lacking.

The CDU wants to work with Islamic associations to introduce Islamic religious education in the state and conclude talks on an agreement. Together with other states, degree programs in Islamic theology are to be developed.

The CDU wants to set up Islamic religion classes in schools. It is talking with Islamic associations about this. The goal is a formal agreement. There should also be university training for imams and teachers. The training must be in German.

The planned degree programs are meant to qualify people for Muslim clerical office and for work as teachers of Islamic religion. They are to be developed in cooperation with other states. The platform sets the condition that the training take place in German. The CDU refers to Islamic studies research at Kiel University in this context.