FDP on education

The FDP wants daycare centers to lay the groundwork for confident use of digital technology. It plans a funding program for equipment and infrastructure.

Children should learn about digital technology in daycare. The FDP wants to give daycare centers money for this. They can buy devices with it. Staff should get more training.

The funding program is meant to pay for infrastructure and equipment. Training on digital education is to be expanded. A 'Digital Daycare' atlas would record what offerings and equipment exist and point to further steps.

The FDP wants more state money for language support that starts in daycare and continues throughout school. Sprach-Kitas (language-focused daycare centers) are to be kept and expanded, and the voluntary school preparation year is to grow.

Children should learn to speak well. The FDP wants the state to spend more money on this. Support should start in daycare. It should continue in school. Experts should test early whether a child needs help.

The plan is one continuous concept from daycare to the end of school. Trained staff should run early language screenings and tests for dyscalculia, alongside statewide offerings in language, math and science. The tools for assessing school readiness are to be reviewed for effectiveness. The Qualified School Preparation Year should stay voluntary and be able to absorb existing preschool programs. Pre-school language courses should be supplemented by language support in everyday routines.

The FDP wants a 'Digital Strategy for Schools in Hesse' covering technology, teaching, teacher training and administration. All schools are to get Wi-Fi, fast internet, modern devices and learning platforms; tablets should be able to replace textbooks.

The FDP wants to give schools modern technology. Every school should have Wi-Fi and fast internet. Children should be able to learn with a tablet instead of books. They should also learn to use media wisely.

Open-source software gets priority where its quality is comparable. The FDP wants to examine a digitalization budget that schools control themselves, plus a program for staff with teaching and technical skills. Media literacy training is to be anchored, core curricula updated regularly and digital content made a fixed part of teacher training. For approving digital applications, the FDP is considering a whitelist. Prevention of cyberbullying and cybergrooming is to be expanded, with more youth media protection officers and media advisors.

The FDP wants compulsory computer science classes available everywhere in lower secondary school by the end of the next legislative term. It also wants to promote the use of artificial intelligence in schools.

All children in grades 5 to 10 should learn computer science. This should be possible everywhere in a few years. The FDP also wants to use artificial intelligence in class. These are computer programs that learn by themselves.

Students should not only use digital applications but understand how they work and how they are built. For AI-based tools, the FDP plans a dedicated framework for use, AI innovation schools and a pool of applications. The state and school authorities should also help schools set up open learning spaces.

The FDP wants to streamline or scrap reporting duties at schools so more time is left for teaching. Additional secretarial and assistant positions are to take over administrative tasks.

Teachers should have less paperwork. The FDP wants to get rid of some reports. Schools should get more office staff. That leaves more time for teaching.

Documentation duties and administrative rules are to be reviewed. The FDP wants to eliminate duplicate structures between the education ministry, school offices and schools. Central services such as template contracts should take work off schools. The state should also contribute money for more secretarial and assistant positions.

The FDP wants to expand the self-governing school model and help all schools get there. Schools should decide on their own budgets and staff, which the party believes leads to better results.

Schools should be able to decide more for themselves. They should manage their own money. They should also pick their own staff. The FDP says children then learn better.

The platform cites studies saying schools with more freedom to decide achieve better results. The FDP rejects splitting autonomy into a teaching side and a financial side. Evaluations of the existing program are to be used to add flexibility. Schools should get administrative capacity for the new tasks; the party points to German schools abroad, which have separate administrative and educational heads.

The FDP wants to secure basic teaching coverage and plan reserves for absences. Against the teacher shortage it relies on better planning, more attractive working conditions and career changers.

Schools do not have enough teachers. The FDP wants to plan better how many are needed. The job should become more attractive. People from other jobs should be able to teach too.

Staff allocation should reflect tasks such as all-day schooling, inclusion and integration and include buffers for illness, training and school events. The FDP mentions appropriate pay as well as chances for further training and promotion. A recruitment drive is to target teachers for elementary, special-needs and vocational schools in particular. Lateral entry should be possible full-time or alongside a job, with quality standards safeguarded.

The FDP wants schools to work more closely with psychologists, therapists, youth welfare services and other professionals. School social work is to grow.

Schools should not only have teachers. The FDP wants more social work at schools. Experts for health and psychology should help too. Elementary schools can get meeting places for families.

The party wants to examine regulating school social work in a state law. Because of health strain on students, school health assistants are to be used more. The FDP sees family centers at elementary schools as a way to link school and home more closely.

The FDP backs the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and wants children with special needs taught at mainstream schools. At the same time, parents should still be able to choose a special school.

Children with disabilities should be able to learn at regular schools. Schools should get enough rooms, materials and staff for this. But parents should also be able to choose a special school. So special schools should stay.

Rooms, materials and staff are to be provided for inclusion. Support hours should be allocated by need, at special schools as well as in inclusive classes. Moving between special and mainstream schools should be easy. Counseling centers are to get more capacity, and exchange between schools, support centers, universities and research is to be strengthened.

The FDP wants more schools to focus on math, computer science, natural sciences and technology. Schools are to work more closely with out-of-school learning sites, universities and companies.

STEM means science, technology, engineering and math. The FDP wants to strengthen these subjects at more schools. There should be offers during vacations. Children should get to know jobs in this field early.

All school types and age groups are to be included, with easy entry-level offerings. Vacation programs and regional student research centers are to be expanded, and the 'Future Space' initiative anchored for the long term. Participation in competitions and olympiads is to be encouraged and teachers' supervision better recognized. Career orientation would include project days and company visits.

The FDP wants economics and finance to play a bigger role in the school subject PoWi (politics and economics) at all school types. It sees this knowledge as a precondition for taking part in society.

Children should learn more about money and the economy at school. This applies to all schools. The FDP wants to change the curricula for this. Schools should also be allowed to teach politics and economics as two subjects.

Core curricula are to be revised. The FDP calls for a university chair in economics education and wants to let schools teach politics and economics separately and on equal footing at all levels. A dedicated unit in the education ministry would be responsible for financial education. Measures are to be coordinated with the federal financial education strategy.

The FDP wants to guarantee at least three hours of physical education per week at all schools, taught by trained PE teachers. Every child should be able to learn to swim safely.

All children should have three hours of sports per week. Trained sports teachers should teach these classes. Every child should be able to learn to swim. So the FDP wants to consider swimming pools when money is shared out.

Enough positions for university-trained PE teachers are to be funded; the FDP rejects PE taught by non-specialists. Elementary and all-day schools should additionally offer a daily sports or movement lesson. Schools and clubs should cooperate more in the afternoon. Outdoor and indoor pools are to be taken into account in a reform of municipal revenue sharing.

The FDP wants to identify gifted children early and support them in a targeted way. In the party's view, unrecognized giftedness should not lead to failure at school.

Some children are especially gifted. The FDP wants to spot these children early. They should get advice and help. Teachers should learn how to recognize such children.

The quality-seal program for giftedness is to be independently evaluated, developed further and linked with the federal-state initiative 'Leistung macht Schule'. The BRAIN counseling center is to keep receiving support. Schools should get more help with student competitions, and cooperation with education foundations is to deepen. Staff should learn more diagnostic skills in training; extra qualifications such as the ECHA certificate are to be promoted.

The FDP wants a statewide communication strategy that quickly points children, teenagers and parents to available help in a mental health crisis. The platform cites the rise in psychological problems since the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Many children and teenagers have mental health problems. The FDP wants families to find help fast. All of Hesse should get clear information on where to go. Parents and teachers should also get training.

The strategy is to include an easy-to-follow description of how support and counseling services inside and outside schools work and how to use them. Training is to be set up for parents, teachers, principals, childcare workers and other educational staff. To spot school avoidance early, the platform also calls for single points of contact and a legally regulated exchange of data between state and local agencies. According to the platform, parents often feel left alone today.

The FDP wants to abolish fixed catchment areas for elementary schools so that parents can pick the school that suits their child and family situation. Schools would also be allowed to fill up to a quarter of their places based on aptitude, and upper-level students would choose their advanced courses freely.

Today each child is assigned to one elementary school. The FDP wants to change that. Parents should be able to choose the school. Children who live nearby still get a place first. Schools may give some places based on ability.

Each elementary school would first admit children from its own neighborhood and could then give remaining places to children from other districts. Schools would be allowed to fill up to 25 percent of places by aptitude. The social index is to keep directing extra resources to schools in socially difficult areas. School networks and combined schools are meant to keep locations open despite demographic change, and schools should be able to offer mixed-grade teaching with the staff positions needed. Cross-school teaching is meant to make free choice of advanced courses possible.

The FDP calls for a program to recruit more elementary school teachers and to give them more relief and support. In the platform's view, elementary school lays the groundwork for later success in school.

The FDP wants to strengthen elementary schools. It wants to recruit more teachers for them. Teachers should get more support. The degree for this teaching job should take longer. Better pay should come faster.

The relief measures include reviewing the class-size threshold, meaning the number of students at which a class is split. The standard length of the elementary teaching degree would rise to at least nine semesters, partly so that students can go on to a doctorate. Pay at the A13 salary grade is to be implemented faster. A longer standard degree is also planned for teachers at Hauptschule and Realschule (lower and intermediate secondary schools).

The FDP wants to keep expanding all-day schools and all-day programs across the state according to need and to deliver the legal right to all-day care that applies from 2026. The party says good all-day care improves equal opportunity.

The FDP wants more all-day schools in Hesse. From 2026, children have a right to all-day care. The FDP supports this goal. The programs should be good and have enough trained staff.

Every care and education program is to have an educational concept and enough qualified staff. Programs should fit the differing needs of families. Qualified homework supervision is meant to make up for a lack of support at home, alongside sports, music and art. Schools are to open up and work with clubs, associations and learning sites outside school.

The FDP wants to secure long-term funding for Ersatzschulen, state-recognized private schools that substitute for public ones. Disadvantages these schools face in dealing with the administration are to be removed.

Some schools are not run by the state. They are called Ersatzschulen. The FDP thinks these schools are important. They should get enough money in the long run. The authorities should not treat them worse.

The platform calls these schools an enrichment that often brings new teaching approaches. As an example of unequal treatment it names access to qualifying continuing education. Such disadvantages in administrative practice are to be eliminated.

The FDP wants to expand career orientation and counseling in every type of school so that fewer young people drop out of training or college. More internships and close cooperation with businesses and public agencies are meant to help.

Students should learn more about possible jobs. The FDP wants more career advice in all schools. There should be more internships. Then fewer young people should quit their training.

Career orientation is to be hands-on, carried out with partners from business and public administration, and a fixed part of schooling. The number of internships would rise, and voluntary extra internships, for example after grades are finalized, would be made easier. Parents are to be involved early and told about follow-on options, with vocational and academic education presented as equal in value. General and vocational schools should be linked. Research projects are also to examine how vocational training can contribute to equal living conditions.

The FDP wants to keep vocational school locations and specialized classes of the dual training system, especially in rural areas, and to attract more young people to vocational training. It sees this as a way to counter the skilled-labor shortage and as local economic development.

The FDP wants more young people to learn a trade. Vocational schools should stay in rural areas too. The way to school should be short. Online classes should also be possible.

The aim is a dense network of vocational schools close to home and workplace, backed by extra resources if necessary. Part-time attendance and online teaching are meant to help keep locations open. The education ministry's location plan is to be reoriented, and vocational schools are to get more room to act as partners of local businesses as well as a central contact in the education administration. Vocational high schools should be promoted more strongly as an alternative to the general Gymnasium. Young people without a training place are to have offers at vocational schools, and higher general school certificates should be attainable there.

The FDP wants to give teacher education more weight and organize professional development at schools better. Every school would get a designated training coordinator, and teachers would have a say in choosing and shaping the courses.

Teachers should be able to keep learning more easily. Every school should have one person in charge of this. Courses should take place more often outside class time. Then fewer lessons are canceled. Teachers who take courses should get career benefits.

The platform treats university study, practical training and continuing education as one connected process; switching study locations within Germany and Europe should remain easy. Each school is to keep its own training plan, and digital and hybrid formats are to grow. The number of school advisers and trainers should match demand, with enough money for courses from private providers. Training should increasingly take place outside teaching hours, and civil service rules should create performance incentives for taking part. The leadership academy is to be developed further for future principals and school authority staff.

The FDP wants fixed-term teacher contracts to continue through the summer break when the state intends to keep employing the teacher afterward. This is meant to end the practice of temporary teachers becoming unemployed over the summer.

Some teachers only have a temporary contract. In the summer break they are often out of work. The FDP wants to end this. The contract should continue in the break if the teacher stays on.

Contracts would be carried through the break whenever continued employment after the summer is planned. The FDP also wants to examine whether new teachers can be hired as early as August 1 at the start of a school year. The platform describes the current situation as artificial unemployment that should be avoided.

The FDP wants Hesse to have a broad range of adult education by the end of the 2020s and to fund the Volkshochschulen (public adult education centers) permanently rather than project by project. Continuing education should become as ordinary as going to the movies.

Adults should also be able to keep learning. The FDP wants to strengthen adult education centers. They should get steady money from the state. Applying for money should be simpler. More courses should be digital.

The platform stresses that these centers offer easy-access integration, German and literacy courses. Existing project funds would be turned into steady funding to give planning security. Paperwork for applying for state money is to be reduced. Courses and teaching materials are to be digitized, with the FDP counting on personalized, data-driven learning software. Earning a vocational qualification should be as uncomplicated as taking a course for personal growth.

The FDP supports faith-based Islamic religious education in Hesse's schools, with outside influence ruled out. Together with universities, it wants to set up German-language imam training.

Schools in Hesse should offer Islamic religion classes. The state trains the teachers for this. Foreign governments should have no influence. Imams should be trained in Hesse in German.

Teachers are to be independent, and their training is the state's responsibility. Partner organizations must guarantee that neither foreign governments nor religious groups exert influence. Chaplaincy in hospitals and prisons is to be expanded. A round table of religions would advise the state parliament, and Jewish culture and religion are to get more room in schools and educational work.

The FDP wants to strengthen school sports and introduce a daily PE lesson at every elementary school equipped for it. Daycare centers, schools and sports clubs are to work together more closely, especially in all-day schooling.

Children should do more sports at school. Elementary schools should offer PE every day if they are able to. Schools and sports clubs should work together more. PE should stay its own school subject.

PE is to be taught only by trained specialists, including in elementary school, and is to remain a subject of its own. The state program "Schule und Verein" is to continue, and more funded partnerships are meant to resolve scheduling conflicts between afternoon care and club activities. Participation in the Bundesjugendspiele (national school sports competition) is to rise to 75 percent. At the end of fourth grade, pupils would earn the "Grünes Laufabzeichen" badge for running 15 minutes without stopping.

The FDP wants law students in Hesse to receive a Bachelor of Laws once they have passed all exams required for admission to the first state examination. Those who then fail the state exam would not be left without a degree. Training for legal trainees (Referendare) is also to become more professional.

Some law students fail the big final exam. Then they have no degree. The FDP wants to give them a bachelor's degree before that. The training after university should also get better.

The platform points to the high share of students who fail the state exam after years of study and sees this as lost potential for society and the rule of law. For the traineeship, a uniform core curriculum matching the final exams is to be developed. Trainees are to get original exam papers with model answers from their first training stage on. Instructors are to be trained and paid appropriately. The platform wants to examine whether performance in the training stages should count toward the grade of the second state exam.

The FDP wants to bring data protection into school lessons and turn the subject of computer science into a subject called Digitalkunde (digital studies). Besides technical knowledge, it is to teach media literacy and security.

Children should learn early how to protect their data. The FDP wants a school subject called digital studies. It should grow out of computer science. Older people should get training too.

Digital studies is to combine knowledge of hardware and software with media literacy, security techniques and sparing use of data. Teachers are to receive further training for this. The FDP also plans training offers for older people.

The FDP wants to make Hesse one of Europe's leading knowledge regions and move research results into companies faster. Universities are to offer help with spin-offs and share in the success of collaborations. The state is also to ensure sufficient base funding for universities.

The FDP wants Hesse to lead in research. Ideas from universities should reach companies faster. Every university should help people start companies. The state should give universities enough steady money.

Partnerships among universities, non-university research institutes and companies are to be strengthened and new networks supported; a matching goal is to go into the universities' target agreements. The FDP sees third-party funding as valuable competition that raises quality and ties to practice. To keep it fair, temporary third-party funds are to be matched by enough long-term state money. The state is to put particular weight on basic research, where private funding is low. Hesse is also to do better in the Excellence Initiative.

The FDP wants positions for staff who already hold a doctorate to generally offer a prospect of permanent employment. According to the platform, short contract terms get in the way of academic work.

Many researchers only have short contracts. The FDP wants to change that. People with a doctorate should have a chance at a permanent job. Women and people with immigrant backgrounds should move up more easily.

The platform considers fixed-term posts sensible up to the doctorate, since training is the main focus at that stage. After that, fixed terms should be the exception, limited to externally funded projects with time-limited money. Junior professorships and tenure-track positions are to be expanded and postdoc funding reformed. The FDP also wants academic jobs to be more family-friendly and to promote the advancement of women and people with a migration background.

The FDP wants to create an office in the state science ministry that people can turn to if they feel disadvantaged at a university because of their opinions. The platform sees freedom of research and teaching as threatened by ideological and political pressure.

The FDP says researchers and students sometimes face pressure over their opinions. So the ministry should have a contact point. People can report there if they are treated unfairly. Every lawful opinion should be possible at universities.

The office would also handle cases where an event cannot take place or a research question cannot be pursued. Whether events are held at universities should not depend on political leaning, as long as those involved respect the Basic Law (the constitution). The FDP wants to stop university charters from restricting what may be researched. Public funding programs should not set a political direction through the way their questions are framed.

The FDP wants to leave as many decisions as possible to the universities themselves. Those that wish should be able to act as employer and as building owner and to conclude their own collective pay agreements.

Universities should decide more for themselves. They should be able to hire their own staff. They should be able to build on their own. They should also be able to make their own pay agreements. This applies only to universities that want it.

Universities should develop their own profiles and priorities and do their own development planning that fleshes out the target agreements with the state. The science ministry stays in charge of statewide planning and should set clear goals reflected in the Hochschulpakt (university funding pact). The FDP also wants to amend the university act again to cut reporting duties to the ministry, which it says have grown sharply.

The FDP wants the state parliament rather than the state government to appoint the members of university councils. In the senate, each group's share of votes would depend on the subject, giving students more weight on teaching matters.

The university council oversees the university. In the future, the state parliament should pick its members. In the university senate, students should have more say on teaching. On research, professors mostly decide.

Council members would not be allowed to sit on a university's executive board or on another university's council, and their term limit would be dropped. In the senate, professors would hold two thirds and academic staff one third of the votes on research matters. On teaching, students would get half the votes and the other two groups a quarter each. For administrative matters, each of the three groups would hold a third.

The FDP wants to remove the obligation to have a verfasste Studierendenschaft (statutory student body) from the Hessian university act. Membership would become voluntary.

Today all students automatically belong to the official student body. It represents the students. The FDP wants to end this duty. Each student should decide whether to join.

The statutory student body is the legally required self-government of students, to which all enrolled students currently belong. The platform would strike this legal requirement. Students who want to be members would decide that for themselves.

The FDP wants to continue and expand the Hessian Hochschulpakt (university funding pact) and raise universities' core funding. This is meant to allow longer-term planning and more permanent jobs, while increasing competition on quality in research and teaching.

The university pact is an agreement between the state and universities. It covers money and tasks. The FDP wants to keep it. Universities should get more stable money. Then they can plan better and offer more permanent jobs.

In the next pact, the indicators used to measure performance in research and teaching are to be refined. Incentives for higher quality should be strengthened; the platform treats research and teaching as equally important. The FDP wants to move money freed up from the LOEWE research program into core funding to secure successful centers permanently. Remaining project funds should be aimed more at the federal excellence initiative.

The FDP wants a first degree up to and including the master's to be free at public universities in Hesse. Beyond that, universities should be free to decide whether students contribute to the cost. High-achieving students should get more scholarships.

The first degree up to the master's should stay free. After that, universities may decide whether to charge money. That money stays with the university. Strong students should get more scholarships. A scholarship is money for studying.

Revenue from such contributions would stay in full with the university that collects it. Fees for continuing-education and postgraduate programs could also be paid later, during working life. The FDP wants to help universities use their full quota of Deutschlandstipendium (a federal merit scholarship) and to add Hessian scholarships on top.

The FDP wants to reorganize university funding between the federal and state governments: the state would pay a fixed amount per student to whichever institution the student chooses, regardless of who runs it. Private universities would also receive this money under certain conditions.

The FDP wants to share out university money in a new way. The state pays a fixed amount for each student. The money goes to the university the student picks. Private universities should also get money if they follow certain rules.

The amount would depend on the subject (the 'cluster price') and be the same nationwide. Private universities would qualify if they either charge no tuition or award places through a uniform merit-based exam and scale their fees by income. In Hesse, the state would pay a partial cluster price for students at private universities, with the share reviewed to ensure fair competition. The FDP also plans to reform accreditation for private universities.

The FDP wants more part-time, work-compatible and distance-learning programs as well as digital and hybrid teaching. Dual study programs and university offerings outside the main sites are to be expanded, partly in response to the shortage of skilled workers.

Studying should fit people's lives better. There should be more part-time programs and programs alongside a job. Online offerings should grow too. Rural areas should get more study options. The Fulda site should be strengthened.

Study and exam rules are to be adjusted so that studying fits with family, caregiving and work; this includes child care and longer opening hours for libraries and labs. The FDP wants to use artificial intelligence in research and teaching and set up a statewide task force on digital transformation that issues recommendations. Dual programs modeled on StudiumPlus, with companies as partners, are meant to strengthen rural areas in particular. In eastern Hesse, the Fulda site is to be strengthened and more research institutions located there.

The FDP wants to offer considerably more dual study programs in rural regions so that young people do not move away to attend university. Vocational schools should offer good teaching and short commutes.

Many young people move to the city to study. The FDP wants more study programs in the countryside. In a dual program, you learn at a college and at a company. Vocational schools should be close and good. That keeps skilled workers in the region.

The platform cites the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (a university of applied sciences) with its many sites in mid-sized rural towns as a model. More dual programs are meant to give young people local prospects and secure skilled workers for businesses and public administration in rural areas. For vocational schools, the FDP stresses high teaching quality and short travel distances to make apprenticeships more attractive.

The FDP wants every student to be able to use a suitable digital device, either their own or a loaned one. By the end of the legislative term, digital learning materials are to replace textbooks entirely.

Every student should be able to use a digital device. Children can bring their own device. Those who have none get one on loan. Paper textbooks should be replaced by digital learning materials.

The concept combines students' own devices ("bring your own device") with a pool of loan devices. Each school would receive resources for IT support to maintain devices and servers. In the long term, the FDP wants to look into a digital budget that schools manage themselves. The state's education platform is to become user-friendly and bundle all functions, including report cards; artificial intelligence would help teachers support students individually.

The FDP wants to test artificial intelligence in schools in a targeted way, creating a framework for its use and AI innovation schools. Teachers are to acquire digital skills throughout their studies and continuing education, and an expert council would monitor digital education.

The FDP wants to test artificial intelligence in schools. There should be special schools for this. Clear rules should guide its use. Teachers should learn more about digital technology. A council of experts should give advice.

A framework would address the technical, data protection and ethical questions of AI in education; approved applications would go into a shared pool. For teacher training, a core set of basic digital skills would be defined and supplemented by continuing education, including through the state's education platform. A regular study would measure teachers' level of knowledge. The Expert Council on Digital Education would include students, parents, teachers, school authorities and researchers, with rotating membership.