FDP on education

The FDP wants to expand the number of nursery and daycare places until supply matches demand. The platform justifies this by pointing to a shortfall of more than 3,800 places in the city of Bremen.

Bremen does not have enough daycare places. The FDP wants to create more places. This includes nurseries. Nurseries are for children under three. Childminders and company daycare centers should help too.

According to the platform, the city of Bremen is short more than 3,800 daycare places by 2023, which the FDP calls unacceptable. Besides adding places, the party relies on private initiative, from childminders to company-run daycare centers. Training opportunities are also to be strengthened. The platform says early education should ensure that a child's chances do not depend on family background or neighborhood.

The FDP wants to enforce a ratio of two qualified staff per 20 children in all daycare centers for three- to six-year-olds and to prevent larger groups. In the party's view, daycare centers should develop from a place of safekeeping into an education center.

Each daycare group should have two trained staff for 20 children. Groups should not get bigger. The FDP wants better training for daycare teachers. Working in daycare should get better. Outside experts should check the quality of the centers.

The platform rejects groups of more than 20 children. Trained educators are to lead the pedagogical work, supported by teams of different specialists and assistants; the share of staff with university training is to rise. Better working conditions are meant to keep staff stable and reduce sick leave. Educator training is to become more practice-oriented, with more options for further training and specialization. The FDP also calls for a uniform, research-based quality assessment through internal and external evaluation covering rooms, equipment, the team, and support from the provider.

The FDP wants mandatory language assessments for children in the early daycare years. Children with deficits are to receive individual support, and taking part in that support is to be compulsory.

The FDP wants to check early how well children speak. The test should be mandatory. It should happen in the first daycare years. Children with problems then get help. This help should be mandatory too.

In the platform's view, the current language assessment of preschool children comes too late, so support often starts only shortly before or at the start of school. An earlier test is meant to let support take effect in time before enrollment. The goal is for children to have the necessary language skills when school begins and for educational opportunity to become fairer. The platform calls language the key to equal chances.

The FDP wants private providers of early childhood education to receive the same funding per child as state facilities. Setting up private daycare centers is to become easier, and qualified childminders are to be paid more.

Some daycare centers are private, run by companies or parent groups. The FDP wants to give them the same money per child as state centers. New private centers should be easier to open. Childminders should get better pay.

The platform names parent-child groups, company-run and independent providers, and parent associations as private actors. By amending Bremen's law on daycare facilities and childminding, the FDP wants to make it easier to found private facilities such as company daycare centers in order to tackle the shortage quickly. According to the platform, childminders matter especially for parents who need flexible care. The FDP therefore calls for higher, appropriate pay for qualified childminders.

The FDP calls for a plan to train all pedagogical daycare staff in digital early childhood education within five years. Every daycare center is to have a binding media policy, and daycare administration and communication are to become more digital.

Children use digital media earlier and earlier. The FDP wants daycare staff to be trained for this. This should happen within five years. Each center should have fixed rules for media. Centers should also talk digitally with parents and offices.

The media policy is to follow the recommendations of the BZgA (Federal Centre for Health Education): at most half an hour of media use a day for three- to six-year-olds and no digital media for nursery-age children. The platform justifies the training by noting that children arrive with very different media experiences. In addition, workflows and communication among the responsible office, providers, managers, staff and parents are to be improved with digital software and hardware. Centers run by independent providers are to be connected in the same way. The FDP points out that it invested more than one million euros for this purpose in Bremerhaven.

The FDP wants to speed up the expansion of all-day schools. This is meant to give children from families with little formal education better chances and to give working parents reliable care.

The FDP wants more all-day schools. Children stay there in the afternoon too. This should help children learn. Working parents can rely on the care. After-school centers and all-day primary schools should work together.

According to the platform, the expansion depends on good staffing, for example multi-professional teams of teachers, educators and special-needs staff. It also requires up-to-date teaching and learning materials and suitable rooms. Alongside all-day schools, the FDP names neighborhood education centers as a way to improve educational opportunity. The work of after-school centers (Horte) and all-day primary schools is to be merged.

The FDP wants to introduce free school choice for primary schools in the state of Bremen as well, by removing catchment boundaries. At the same time, children should start school with the language, social and physical skills needed for lessons.

Today, where you live decides your primary school. The FDP wants to change that. Parents should choose the primary school freely. Children should start school well prepared. Daycare and primary school should work together more closely.

Catchment boundaries currently assign children to a primary school by place of residence; the FDP wants to abolish them. Where children do not yet meet the requirements for lessons, there is to be a transition program run by daycare and primary school, and cooperation between the two is to grow. For primary schools, the platform considers mixed-age classes a suitable way to deal with a diverse student body.

The FDP wants to bring back school grades from third grade onward and the repeating of school years. It justifies this with the principle of performance, with feedback for children, and with better comparability.

The FDP wants grades again from third grade. Children should also be able to repeat a school year again. The FDP says performance should matter more in school. Grades are easy to understand. Parents should always know how well their child is learning.

According to the platform, grades offer a transparent, easily understood assessment and prevent misunderstandings. Repeating a year is meant to make performance comparable and ease the move to secondary schools. Performance is to count more even in primary school; the FDP wants to strengthen the school-type recommendation at the transition, and parents are to be kept informed about their child's progress. For high-achieving students, the party looks to the Graz model with its incentives. Bremen diplomas should again be valued nationally and internationally, and correct spelling is to carry more weight from the start.

The FDP wants an investment drive to eliminate the repair backlog at schools in Bremen and Bremerhaven within ten years. In addition, education spending per capita should not fall behind Berlin and Hamburg.

Many schools in Bremen are in bad shape. The FDP wants to repair and modernize them. This should be done within ten years. New schools should be planned for more students. Bremen should spend as much on education as Berlin and Hamburg.

The platform describes many school buildings in the state as dilapidated and sees a need for renovation and modernization. Rooms and buildings are to be designed to meet needs and planned with foresight, especially given rising student numbers. The investments are also meant to benefit other educational institutions. The FDP points to first steps taken while it was part of the government in Bremerhaven. It names the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg as the benchmark for annual per-capita education spending.

The FDP wants schools to decide for themselves how to implement uniform education standards. To that end they are to get more pedagogical, staffing and financial freedom and a budget of their own.

Schools should decide more on their own. Each school should get its own budget. A budget is money the school controls itself. With it, the school can choose staff and teaching materials. It should also plan its timetable more freely.

The school's own budget is to be professionally managed and allow for staffing decisions, training plans and independent selection of teaching materials. Schools should be able to arrange the timetable more freely, for instance with block teaching. Distinct school profiles are meant to give students more choice and help schools serve different performance levels. The platform cites experience from other countries and Bremen schools that it says succeed when given room to shape their work. Instead of centrally allocated posts, staffing is to be planned by the schools themselves.

The FDP wants to publish the comparative results of every individual school to help parents choose and to spark competition among schools. Independently run schools are to be better funded through a revised private schools law.

The FDP wants to show how well each school performs. The results should be public. This helps parents choose a school. Schools should spur each other on. Private schools should get more money from the state.

According to the platform, competition will lead to better structures on its own. To keep it fair, all schools are to receive additional funds and programs. For independently run schools, the FDP demands funding that secures their existence, with markedly and lastingly better reimbursement through an amendment of the private schools law. The party also supports nationwide final exams at a uniform standard.

The FDP aims for teacher staffing of 106 percent at all schools and wants to train, recruit and relieve more teachers to get there. A campaign is meant to reduce canceled lessons.

Bremen does not have enough teachers. The FDP wants to train and recruit more. Each school should have slightly more teachers than it needs. Then fewer lessons are canceled. People from other jobs should be able to teach too. Teachers should have less paperwork.

The University of Bremen is to train more teachers; study and practice are to be linked more closely through the Landesinstitut für Schule (state institute for schools), so that the post-degree traineeship can be shortened considerably. Career changes into teaching and recognition of foreign qualifications are to become easier, with the platform requiring a high level of language proficiency. Schools should be allowed to hire part-time practitioner teachers, especially in shortage subjects. Also planned are equal pay across all school types, more flexible working-time models, and digital teaching to offset cancellations. The FDP additionally calls for an innovation budget per class, mediators for conflicts with parents, and fewer reporting and documentation duties.

The FDP supports inclusive schooling and wants to give it more staff and funding. At the same time, the special schools for students with visual, hearing and severe multiple disabilities are to be kept. The platform argues that inclusion is underfunded, so many children do not reach the best qualification they could.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. The FDP wants more trained staff and more money for this. Special schools for blind, deaf and severely disabled children should stay. No child should be left without lessons.

The platform calls for enough teaching specialists for inclusive classes and for money to pay and equip qualified assistants. Teachers are to get time for suitable training, and diversity skills are to be part of each school's organizational and staff development. Support is to be expanded both for children with disabilities and for gifted students. Where assistants cannot be found, the children concerned are to be taught in special classes, for example at centers for supportive pedagogy. The platform says this is less exclusionary than keeping them out of school altogether.

The FDP wants classroom teaching brought in line with current teaching science. Training is to be expanded and made mandatory, especially for teachers with many years of service. The platform regards many of today's teaching and learning methods as outdated.

Lessons should become more modern. The FDP thinks many methods are out of date. Teachers should therefore do more training. For older teachers, this training should be required.

The platform calls for teaching to be fundamentally reworked around current didactic approaches. To that end, initial and in-service training offers are to grow considerably. They are to be binding so that teaching styles seen as outdated disappear from classrooms.

The FDP wants to broaden language offerings at all schools and provide more subject teaching in English. European exchange programs such as Erasmus+ are to become better known in schools and be used more often. The platform justifies this with an increasingly international world in which language skills are necessary.

Students should be able to learn more languages. Some subjects should be taught in English more often. Schools should use exchange programs in Europe more. This way young people get to know other countries.

English is to be taught from third grade, supplemented by more bilingual subject teaching across the state. A second foreign language is to remain compulsory at Gymnasien (academic-track schools). Students in other school tracks are to be guaranteed a choice between several foreign languages, and the range is to grow everywhere. Programs like Erasmus+ are to be used more, from digital exchange to paid stays abroad.

The FDP wants politics and economics established as stand-alone subjects taught weekly from secondary school onward. Lessons should also prepare students better for everyday life, for example on personal finances and legal matters. The platform considers Bremen's current requirements for economic education too loose.

Politics and economics should be their own school subjects. They should be on the schedule every week. School should also teach more knowledge for daily life. This includes handling money and legal questions.

Both subjects are to be separated from the other social studies subjects. According to the platform, a stronger link to everyday life especially helps children who do not get such knowledge at home. Chambers, companies and business associations are to be involved so that economic knowledge is taught in a practical way. The FDP sees economic education as the basis for maturity, judgment and participation.

The FDP wants to allow Bundeswehr youth officers to inform students at Bremen schools about security and defense policy. According to the platform, this is currently not permitted in the state of Bremen, unlike in many other German states.

Experts from the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, should be allowed into Bremen schools. They should inform students about security and defense. The FDP says this is not allowed in Bremen so far. The FDP wants to change that.

Students are to be able to get information on these topics from Bundeswehr experts. Youth officers would be permitted to bring their civic education offerings into classrooms. The platform argues that factual information is needed to understand the international context of security policy.

The FDP wants to anchor existing Gymnasien (academic-track schools) in the school law and found new ones where needed. More Gymnasien are to offer the Abitur after 13 years without abolishing the 12-year route. A trial period in grades 5 and 6 is to determine whether a child stays or moves to an Oberschule (comprehensive school).

The FDP wants to keep the Gymnasien and found new ones. A Gymnasium is a school that leads to the Abitur, the university entrance diploma. More of them should offer it after 13 years. The fast route after 12 years should stay. Grades 5 and 6 should be a trial period. After that the child stays or changes schools.

The platform wants smaller classes and better equipment at Gymnasien. It justifies the trial period by saying some children cannot meet the demands of this school type; the Oberschulen are to provide the needed places from grade 7. The longer route is meant to give more time for in-depth learning with no more than 30 lessons a week. The FDP also backs the Oberschule as a comprehensive school where every qualification can be earned. These schools should be able to become more attractive through their own profiles, for which the platform says they need school autonomy.

Within four years, the FDP wants to create a state scholarship for at least 3,000 gifted students from low-income families. In addition, the talent school pilot from North Rhine-Westphalia is to be brought to Bremen and Bremerhaven. According to the platform, educational opportunity should not depend on parents' income or the neighborhood.

The FDP wants a scholarship for school students. A scholarship is support with money. At least 3,000 gifted children from poor families should get it. There should also be talent schools like in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The scholarship is to apply at all secondary schools and work together with universities, vocational education and their talent scouts. The scouts are to find, advise and accompany talented students and help with internships, training places and stays abroad, also together with chambers and foundations. A state campaign, for instance on social media, is to present successful climbers as role models. The talent schools are to be scientifically monitored and coordinated with the federal Startchancen program.

The FDP calls for a program to make up for learning gaps from the pandemic. It includes a broad assessment of learning levels, more support and tutoring programs, and voluntary summer schools. In the platform's view, school closures and unprepared digital teaching caused serious deficits.

Many children learned less during the COVID period. The FDP wants to make up for that. First, schools should check what the children know. Then there should be more tutoring. In the summer break there should be voluntary learning offers.

The platform demands a review of education policy decisions during the pandemic, which it classifies as mistakes and failures. Compensating measures are to follow on that basis. The summer schools are to continue for the foreseeable future so that missed material can be caught up.

The FDP wants all vocational schools to operate independently and be equipped to current standards. Schools are to prepare students neutrally for both university and dual vocational training, since the platform believes training has received too little attention lately. Vocational Gymnasien are to count as an equal alternative to regular upper secondary school.

Vocational schools should be able to decide many things themselves. They should get modern equipment. Schools should inform fairly about university and job training. The FDP thinks training in companies has been neglected.

Equipment is to be modernized continuously so that school profiles match future demand for skilled workers. Vocational schools are to get enough money and staff to integrate young immigrants, above all for language support. Career guidance is to cover opportunities and risks in the labor market as well as starting a business. The platform sees growing academization as a cause of skills shortages in trades, retail, care and industry.

The FDP wants training at vocational schools for health and care professions to be free of tuition. Training for preschool teachers, by contrast, is to be organized as a dual program. In addition, the Aufstiegs-BAföG (aid for career advancement training) is to be used more in the state, and the BAföG process is to be fully digital.

Some training programs charge school fees. This is true for speech therapists or occupational therapists, for example. The FDP wants to end these fees. Preschool teachers should learn at a workplace and at school in the future.

The platform names occupational therapy, speech therapy and midwifery as examples of tuition-free training. A dual program for preschool teachers would combine workplace practice and school. According to the platform, the Aufstiegs-BAföG, a state grant for vocational advancement courses, was reformed by the federal coalition. BAföG applications are to be digitized as quickly as possible.

The FDP wants to make Bremen and Bremerhaven leaders in digital education. Digital and hybrid learning are to be a permanent part of the school system, schools are to be technically equipped, and their administration digitized. Students are to learn how to handle technology and data responsibly.

Schools should become more digital. Every classroom should have good Wi-Fi. Every school should get a staff member for the technology. Children should learn how to use the internet safely. Paper forms in school offices should go away.

Plans include stable Wi-Fi in all classrooms and subject rooms, at least one IT assistant per school, and devices for non-teaching educational staff as well. Qualified teachers are to become their school's digital officers, and computer science is to be embedded in several subjects, especially math and technology. Under the label IT-Führerschein (IT license), binding standards are to be developed that start in elementary school and cover data privacy, cyberbullying, fake news and conspiracy theories. Learning software and platforms for teaching material are to be used, and free materials made public. Basic skills such as mental arithmetic and handwriting are to be kept.

The FDP wants to give universities more freedom: they are to set their own priorities in research and teaching and decide on their staff by themselves. The party explicitly supports private universities and professorships endowed by companies.

Universities should be allowed to decide more on their own. They should choose their own topics. They should also hire and dismiss staff themselves. The FDP also supports private universities.

The platform exempts teacher training from the free choice of focus areas. A broad range of degree programs is to be kept because it makes both cities attractive places to study. Animal testing is to be limited to what is strictly necessary and used only where no alternative exists; the FDP considers it acceptable when ethics and animal welfare standards are met. The platform regards private universities as an enrichment alongside public ones.

The FDP rejects statutory civil clauses and also wants to abolish universities' internal ones, especially at the University of Bremen. Civil clauses commit universities to research for civilian purposes only. According to the platform, research and teaching with a military connection are to be supported.

Some universities may not do research for the military. This rule is called a civil clause. The FDP wants to end such rules. Universities in Bremen should also be allowed to do research for military purposes.

The platform bases the demand on the freedom of science and research. It relies on researchers acting on their own responsibility. The abolition is to cover both requirements in law and universities' own commitments.

The FDP wants to raise universities' core funding so that they reach the national average. The platform considers today's funding inadequate and sees resulting disadvantages in recruiting and a heavy dependence on third-party funds. In Bremerhaven, the number of study places is to rise to 5,000 in the medium term.

Universities in Bremen should get more money. They should be able to plan with this money long term. Old buildings should be renovated. Bremerhaven should have 5,000 study places in the future.

Better funding is to be achieved in part through more cooperation with the federal government. Planned renovations of university buildings are to be carried out quickly and more scheduled. The University of Bremen is to be supported in regaining its status as a University of Excellence. Dual study programs up to the bachelor's degree are to be expanded according to business needs. The platform sees universities as an economic factor because many graduates stay in the region.

The FDP wants to make an orientation semester possible at all universities in the state, taking up a proposal from Hochschule Bremen. According to the platform, better guidance in choosing a degree should lower the number of dropouts.

The FDP wants to make an orientation semester possible. There, young people can get to know different subjects. This helps them find the right degree. Then fewer people drop out of university.

The platform expects fewer dropouts to mean better use of existing resources and lower costs. The offer is also meant to make Bremen more attractive as a place to study. The FDP expects this to yield more qualified graduates for the regional economy.

The FDP wants to support continuing education during working life with a "Midlife-Bafög" (a midlife education grant) and personal Freiraumkonten (learning accounts). Employees could save part of their pay in these accounts free of tax and social contributions to fund training. The program argues that technological change requires constant learning.

The FDP wants people to keep learning during their working life. There should be a personal learning account for this. Workers can save money for courses there without paying tax. People with low or middle incomes get extra support. This support is called Midlife-Bafög.

The savings are meant to cover things like course fees or lost earnings during training and would not depend on the employer. Employers could also pay in, and overtime and unused vacation could be converted into credit. People with low and middle incomes would get help building up their balance through the "Midlife-Bafög". The program grants everyone a right to lifelong learning, for which the state of Bremen should provide offers. Training should be possible alongside a job.

The FDP wants to make Bremen more attractive for aspiring lawyers because the state competes with other German states for young talent. To that end, law studies, exams, and the Referendariat (post-graduate legal traineeship) are to be improved and trainees paid better.

The FDP wants to improve legal training in Bremen. Exams should be possible on a computer. There should be more places for legal trainees. Trainees should get more money.

The FDP supports an integrated bachelor's degree (LL.B.) within law studies and wants to introduce computer-based exams for both state examinations. The standard period of study is to match the average duration of currently eleven semesters so that student aid (Bafög) does not end before the first exam. A retake to improve one's grade should be possible even without an early first attempt and should be free of fees. The number of traineeship places is to rise, the trainee allowance is to be set at half of the R1 judge's salary, and the limit on additional earnings is to be dropped. A more flexible training regulation for the second exam and a part-time traineeship are also planned.

The FDP wants to expand swimming lessons for children and teenagers and let daycare centers get children used to water. Swimming in lakes and rivers is to become part of training in order to prevent drowning accidents. In Bremerhaven, swimming at the Weserstrandbad is to be allowed again.

More children should learn to swim. Even in daycare, they should get used to water. Children should also practice in lakes and rivers. This should mean fewer swimming accidents. In Bremerhaven, people should be allowed to swim at the Weser beach again.

Compact vacation courses are to be supported, along with a network of daycare centers, schools, clubs, the DLRG (lifesaving association), and volunteers. The program justifies open-water practice by noting that currents and wind feel different there than in a pool and that accidents in Bremen's lakes have increased. Regular testing of the lakes, for example for blue-green algae, is to continue. In Bremerhaven, the FDP sees a chance after the realignment of the north pier to build a swimming zone structurally separated from the Weser, modeled on the Perlebucht in Büsum. The city beach is also to host concerts and events and be promoted beyond the region.