FDP on education

The FDP wants to expand language support in early childhood education and set up a state institute for early language learning. Language gaps from the Covid period are to be recorded and made up. The plusKITAS (daycare centers with extra support for children from difficult social backgrounds) are to be strengthened considerably.

Children should learn to speak well early on. The FDP wants to found a new state institute for this. Many children learned less because of Covid. The FDP wants to make up for that with language support. Special daycare centers for disadvantaged children should get more help.

The platform calls good language skills a precondition for participation in society and for later success in school and work. Gaps caused by limited daycare access during the pandemic are to be systematically recorded and closed with tailored offers. The new state institute is to develop language learning embedded in everyday daycare routines and offer further training. The party justifies strengthening plusKITAS by pointing to the poorer educational chances of children who lack support.

The FDP wants to introduce children to math, computer science, natural sciences and technology as early as daycare and teach them first skills in handling digital media. A 'digital daycare bonus' is to fund devices and training. Educators are to get a training concept for simple experiments.

Children should explore and experiment already in daycare. They should also learn to handle digital media well. The FDP wants to give money for devices and training. Every educator should have a digital device.

As an example of the potential of early STEM education, the platform cites the foundation Haus der kleinen Forscher. The training on science experiments is voluntary and is to be funded so that as many children as possible benefit. Digital education is about age-appropriate, child-friendly use. The goal is one digital device per educator in every group.

Within five years, the FDP wants to launch a statewide scholarship for at least 100,000 students at secondary schools. Talent scouts from universities are to find, advise and accompany these young people. Talent support is to get permanent funding and a legal basis.

The FDP wants a scholarship for at least 100,000 school students. A scholarship is support for gifted young people. Talent scouts should find and advise these young people. Where they come from should not matter.

The model is the Ruhr-Talente scholarship program. Support is meant for young people who need help and are at the same time especially deserving of it. With backing from business and foundations, the talent scouts are to guide them toward university and arrange internships and stays abroad. The Talent-Kollegs are to spread to more regions, and contact points next to schools are planned for young people from families with little formal education. A state campaign is to present successful climbers as role models.

The FDP wants to take the Talentschulen (specially supported schools in disadvantaged areas) beyond the pilot stage and expand them to 1,000 schools statewide. According to the platform, educational opportunity should not depend on parents' income or the neighborhood a child grows up in.

The FDP wants many more Talentschulen. These schools get extra help in poorer neighborhoods. There should be 1,000 of them across the state. Children should have good chances no matter where they live.

The pilot project started in North Rhine-Westphalia is to be evaluated by researchers and expanded on that basis. The expansion is to be coordinated with the support for such schools planned by the new federal government. The target is 1,000 Talentschulen across the state. The platform argues that background and place of residence must not decide a child's educational chances.

The FDP wants to keep the tiered school system with its different school types and its mix of public and independent schools. It rejects debates about abolishing individual school types, while calling for all types to be treated equally.

North Rhine-Westphalia has many kinds of schools. The FDP wants to keep it that way. No kind of school should be closed down. All kinds of schools should be treated equally well.

According to the platform, the variety of school types lets each child find a suitable path with different diplomas. Moving between school types should be easy, and high performance standards should apply everywhere. Resources are to be allocated in a differentiated and fair way. In the FDP's view, teachers at all school types are entitled to equal pay.

The FDP wants to keep strengthening elementary schools through its Masterplan Grundschule, focusing on reading, math and writing. It plans 3,000 social education specialists and wants to end the teacher shortage within five years by adding university places.

The FDP wants to strengthen elementary schools. Children should mainly learn reading, math and writing there. Every elementary school should get an extra social education worker. There should be more university places for future elementary teachers.

Elementary schools are to keep receiving additional subject support. Teachers are to be relieved through a lower required teaching load. A total of 3,000 social education specialists are planned for the first school years, so that each of the nearly 2,900 elementary schools gets one; for a time they are also to support inclusive classes. In the medium term, more special education teachers are to be trained. More university places and locations are meant to end the shortage of elementary teachers for good within five years.

The FDP wants to implement the legal entitlement to all-day care and create at least 200,000 additional places. Binding quality standards are to apply statewide, and the federal government is to help fund this permanently.

The FDP wants more places for afternoon care at school. At least 200,000 new places should be created. All programs should follow fixed quality rules. The federal government should pay its share for the long term.

According to the platform, all-day programs help parents combine family and work and improve equal opportunity. Binding standards are to cover hours, staffing and equipment, and parent fees are to become more comparable and fair. Schools and all-day providers are to work more closely, for example through shared team time for care staff and teachers. In talks with municipalities, providers and parents, paths toward compulsory all-day elementary schools are also to be considered.

The FDP wants to support Hauptschulen, Realschulen and Sekundarschulen (non-academic-track secondary schools) with a quality drive and a special investment program. Intermediate diplomas are to gain standing and career guidance is to improve in order to secure skilled workers.

The FDP wants to strengthen the secondary schools that do not lead to the Abitur. They should get more staff and better equipment. Students should try out jobs while still at school. Job training should count as much as a university degree.

The program called “Starke Mitte” (strong middle) is meant to bring more staff and modern equipment and to link schools more closely with training companies. Students are to gain more hands-on experience in different fields during their school years. Career counseling is to inform them about career and pay prospects in skilled trades and other training sectors. The goal is a shift in attitudes toward treating vocational and academic education as equal.

The FDP wants to expand economic education and offer economics as an advanced course everywhere. Computer science is to be put on a par with the natural sciences in the Abitur (university entrance diploma), and a nationally comparable “Deutschland-Abitur” is to be created for core subjects.

The FDP wants more economics in class. Students should also learn about stocks. Computer science should be easier to choose for the Abitur, the final school exam. The Abitur should be comparable all over Germany.

In economics class, students at all school types are also to learn how stock markets and long-term wealth building work. In the upper grades, economics is to be available as an advanced course statewide. Computer science is to become easier to choose as an Abitur subject. An Abitur with a social science focus is also to become possible. For other diplomas too, the FDP aims for the greatest possible comparability across states.

The FDP wants to create additional programs for gifted students. These include letting groups skip a grade at comprehensive schools as well, and closer cooperation between schools and universities.

The FDP wants to support gifted children better. Groups of students should be able to skip a grade at comprehensive schools too. Schools and universities should work together more. There should be more programs like the student university.

Skipping a grade in groups is to become possible at Gesamtschulen (comprehensive schools) as well. Proven approaches to supporting gifted students are to be made better known among schools. Programs such as the “Schüler-Uni” (university courses for school students) are to be expanded and student-run companies supported. The FDP also wants to encourage participation in competitions for gifted students.

The FDP wants to gradually expand inclusive learning at mainstream schools while keeping special schools. Parents are to decide freely where their child with special needs learns; the platform treats both options as equal.

Children with special needs can learn at regular schools or at special schools. The FDP wants to strengthen both. Parents should decide which school their child attends. There should be more specialists and more advice for this.

Inclusive learning is to be supported by additional specialist staff, improved classroom aides and more teacher training. Special schools are to be able to develop into competence centers for special education support and be part of regional networks with daycare centers, youth welfare offices, early intervention and school social work. Independent counseling for parents is to be expanded. In addition, more special education teachers are to be trained, and moving between the two systems in either direction is to become easier.

The FDP wants to stick with in-person teaching and address the learning gaps and psychological effects of the pandemic among children and teens. Education vouchers are to be continued in order to gradually shift school funding toward the individual student.

The FDP wants schools to stay open. Children should be able to catch up on what they missed. The mental effects of the COVID period should also get attention. The FDP wants to keep using education vouchers. With a voucher, a child gets money for extra tutoring.

Multi-professional teams at schools are to identify catch-up needs and offer subject-related and educational support. Existing catch-up programs are to be assessed for their usefulness beyond the pandemic. Students close to graduation are to be approached individually about career options. This is meant to reduce the number of young people who start neither training nor university after school. Health protection is to remain a consideration in in-person teaching.

The FDP wants an anti-bullying campaign to better protect children and teens and to provide points of contact for those affected. Trainee teachers are to receive mandatory prevention training.

Many students are bullied at school. The FDP wants to protect them better. Students who are bullied should find places that help them. New teachers should learn how to deal with bullying and violence.

Prevention training on bullying and violence is to become a fixed part of practical teacher training. That training is also to cover how to support young people who are finding their sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as how to address social media. Teachers are to be able to qualify as bullying and conflict advisers and serve as contact persons among staff. An anonymous survey with academic oversight is to record how often and in what patterns bullying occurs. The FDP also wants to examine whether self-assertion strategies can be taught in class.

The FDP wants to resolve the teacher shortage permanently to allow smaller classes at all school types. To do so, more university places are to be created and admission restrictions for all teacher training programs removed.

There are not enough teachers, especially at elementary schools. The FDP wants more university places for future teachers. Everyone who wants to become a teacher should get a place. Then classes can become smaller.

More universities, such as RWTH Aachen, are to offer elementary teacher training so that training is spread more widely across regions. Lifting admission limits is to be achieved through agreements with universities and is expected to benefit elementary and special education teaching most. Together with universities of applied sciences, models of teacher training for vocational education are to be developed. The existing course of adding staff positions at schools is to continue.

The FDP wants every school to have fast internet, Wi-Fi and up-to-date technology, and every student and teacher to have their own device. Digital learning is to be anchored in all subjects, starting with coding in elementary school.

The FDP wants all schools to have fast internet. Every student should get their own device, such as a tablet. Parents pay a small share. Families with little money pay nothing. Children should start learning to code in elementary school.

Funding is to be secured permanently, including through the federal Digitalpakt 2.0 together with local school authorities. A state competence center linked to research is to develop teaching and technical concepts, offer training and help shape data protection standards. IT specialists called “digital janitors” are to relieve teachers of technical tasks. Every child is to have programmed an app at least once by the end of school. Curriculum content is also to be available online so that children who are sick for a long time do not fall behind.

The FDP wants a new investment program to reduce the backlog in school construction and renovation. Private school operators are to be compensated for extra space needed due to the return to the nine-year Gymnasium (G9) just as public ones are.

Many school buildings are old. The FDP wants to start a new program for school construction. It is called Gute Schule 2030. Private schools should also get money for new rooms.

The program is to be developed with local school authorities and draw on lessons from “Gute Schule 2020.” It is to address the demands of digitalization, integration and inclusion and support new educational architecture, also with climate change in mind. The increased per-school lump sum in municipal funding is to remain. Public school authorities receive a total of 518 million euros through 2026 because of G9; operators of private schools are to get equivalent reimbursement.

The FDP seeks a new agreement with the federal government and municipalities that clearly defines responsibilities in education. The federal government is to contribute more to the costs.

The federal government, the state and the cities pay for schools together. The FDP wants new rules on who is responsible for what. The federal government should give more money for education.

The aim is a high-performing school system in North Rhine-Westphalia. The new agreement is to define responsibilities clearly. It is to secure sustainable funding in light of digitalization, integration and inclusion. The FDP sees the federal government, as the financially strongest level, as having a duty to contribute.

The FDP wants school social work, school psychology and other specialists to be permanently established alongside teachers. School administration is also to be strengthened so teachers have more time for teaching.

Not only teachers work at schools. There are also social workers and psychologists. The FDP wants to hire more of these specialists. School offices should get more help too. Then teachers have more time for teaching.

Positions are to be allocated increasingly by a social index that reflects the situation of each individual school. School social work and school psychology are to be funded and managed through the state budget. Every elementary school is to have at least one social education specialist as a permanent team member. School offices and administrative assistants are to be expanded. Staff in these teams are to get opportunities for further training and advancement.

The FDP wants more practical phases in teacher training, including a practical semester already in the bachelor's program, and an allowance for it. This is meant to reduce dropouts and keep graduates from avoiding the teaching profession.

People who want to become teachers should practice in schools earlier. There should be a practical semester in the first part of their studies. Students should get money for it. The FDP wants more students to actually become teachers later.

The allowance is to be modeled on BAföG (federal student aid), since students cannot work their side jobs during the practical semester. A pact with universities is to bring better student supervision and more transparent programs. Course content is to be reviewed, for example more math teaching methods instead of higher mathematics for elementary teachers; universities are to be persuaded to adapt. In the long run, training is to become a degree integrated with work in schools.

The FDP wants to require teachers to complete a fixed number of training hours each year. The offerings are to be coordinated statewide, supplemented digitally and opened up to private providers.

Teachers should have to take training every year. There should be a fixed number of hours for this. There should be more online courses. Private providers should also be allowed to offer courses for teachers.

Training is to meet subject-specific requirements and cover cross-cutting topics such as digitalization, integration and inclusion. School leaders and teachers are to agree jointly and bindingly on courses and times. Offerings on diagnostics, for example for dyslexia and dyscalculia, are to grow. Schools are to receive their own budgets to spend as they see fit. Universities are to be involved where possible.

The FDP wants teachers in all teaching tracks to receive the same starting pay, because it regards their training as equivalent. Chains of fixed-term contracts in schools are to be reduced and ended where possible.

Teachers at different kinds of schools earn different amounts today. The FDP wants everyone to get the same pay when they start. Teachers should less often have only temporary contracts. This should also apply to career changers.

The reform is to cover both civil-servant teachers and those employed under collective agreements, and to take the 2009 reform of teacher training into account. Beyond starting pay, promotion grades and a fair solution for teachers already in service are also to be considered. Permanent positions are to be offered more often, especially to career changers. The platform cites school staffing needs and the career prospects of those affected.

The FDP wants to make teaching careers more flexible so that people from other professions can teach as “Praxislehrer” (practitioner teachers). In turn, trained teachers are to find it easier to leave temporarily and return later.

People from other jobs should be able to teach at schools. The FDP calls them practitioner teachers. Teachers should also be allowed to do other work for a while. Afterward they can come back to school.

Practitioner teachers could be managers or other suitably qualified people and are meant to ease shortages at vocational colleges in particular. Under the name “Teach Between,” it is to become possible to work at a school during a sabbatical. Practitioners are to be able to contribute regularly in class, for example entrepreneurs in economics or IT specialists in computer science. Education is thus to become more of a task for society as a whole.

The FDP wants schools to decide more for themselves on teaching, staffing and budgets. The state would focus on statewide standards, basic staffing and teacher training. The platform cites the PISA study, which it says shows that children do better at schools with more decision-making freedom.

The FDP wants to give schools more freedom. Schools should decide on teaching, staff and money themselves. The state should only set important rules for everyone. The FDP says children learn better at schools with more freedom.

Schools would be able to develop their own specializations and creative teaching methods. They could set up dual leadership: an educational head drives school development, while an administrative head provides support together with the school authority. Individual school budgets, especially for digital education, would involve teachers and principals in choosing digital learning tools. Sponsorship and third-party funding remain allowed as long as neutrality is ensured. An exchange forum would spread good concepts statewide and reward them with funding.

The FDP wants the conference of state education ministers (KMK) to give states more freedom in shaping the school year and to rotate vacation dates among all states. North Rhine-Westphalia should be able to start summer vacation later and have a permanent Pentecost break. The platform sees the state as disadvantaged under current rules.

The German states set school vacations together. The FDP wants to change these rules. Summer vacation in North Rhine-Westphalia should be able to start later. Then a break at Pentecost is possible too. The FDP says the state is at a disadvantage today.

According to the platform, proposals from North Rhine-Westphalia have so far failed because of resistance from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. If that does not change, the state should consider leaving the joint vacation arrangements. The KMK should also do more for comparability, transparency and quality in education. To that end, the FDP wants to launch innovations with the Standing Scientific Commission and use cooperation with the federal government.

The FDP wants to keep supporting European and international student exchanges and school partnerships. A scholarship competition is meant to ensure that taking part does not depend on parents' income.

Students should be able to get to know other countries. The FDP wants to support exchanges and partnerships between schools. There should be scholarships. A scholarship is money for taking part. That way children from poorer families can join too.

The platform argues that exchanges deepen language skills and help develop personality. The programs often rely on volunteer work and would continue to receive support. More schools of all types would also be encouraged to become Europaschulen (schools with a European profile).

The FDP wants to ease entry into vocational training through modular training, partial qualifications and more part-time training. Career guidance should become more youth-oriented, and open training positions should be matched better with applicants.

The FDP wants more young people to start job training. Training should be possible in parts or part-time. Career guidance at school should make young people curious about jobs. Open positions and applicants should find each other more easily.

The state initiative "Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss" (no degree without a next step) would become more practical. Subsidies for about 1,000 extra training places a year for young people needing support in disadvantaged regions would continue. A new procedure would assess and certify skills below a full vocational degree; recognition of foreign vocational qualifications would improve, and young refugees receive special support programs. Together with the employment agency and the chambers, the FDP wants to coordinate placement across regions, backed for example by housing for trainees. People who drop out of university should get a vocational path, and part of vocational school could be completed at partner schools abroad.

The FDP wants to abolish school fees in all training occupations, after they were already dropped for several health professions. Every first vocational training should be possible without a financial burden. Support for continuing education and master craftsman qualifications would also grow.

Some job training programs charge school fees. The FDP wants to end these fees for all training programs. A person's first training should cost nothing. There should also be more help for further training.

The platform sees school fees as a hurdle, especially in occupations short of skilled workers. Fees have already been dropped for occupational therapy, speech therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry and pharmaceutical technical assistants. Scholarship programs, Aufstiegs-BAföG (advancement aid) and training vouchers would be expanded and a new Midlife-BAföG created; the FDP backs the federal government's goals here. As an exception, young people could earn the lower secondary certificate after grade 9 only after two years at a vocational college.

The FDP wants to strengthen vocational education with an excellence initiative, digital offerings and support for gifted trainees, and to put it on par with academic education. Plans include a fully digital distance training center. Moving between vocational training and university should become easier.

The FDP wants to improve job training. Job training should count as much as a university degree. There should be a digital center for vocational school. Then trainees can learn from anywhere. Switching between job training and university should get easier.

At the digital distance training center, the school part of training could be completed from anywhere, saving travel in rural areas and securing rare occupations. Holders of a Bachelor Professional would gain access to a master's program after two extra semesters; university graduates could earn a vocational degree after a compact training period. The plan includes excellence vocational colleges and excellence continuing-education academies, plus a review and update of curricula. Vocational colleges would be allowed to present themselves at all feeder schools. Renovation needs at vocational schools would be assessed and covered first from federal and then from state funds.

The FDP wants to anchor digital formats that proved useful at universities during the pandemic permanently and on a sound legal basis, while keeping in-person teaching. In addition, a digital university would mainly reach people with vocational qualifications and non-traditional students.

During the pandemic, universities did a lot online. The FDP wants to keep what worked well. In-person classes should continue. There should also be a digital university. It should reach people who already have a job too.

Together with students and universities, experiences would be evaluated and legal foundations created for digital teaching, exams, elections and committee meetings; the Hochschulfreiheitsgesetz (university freedom act) would be updated for this. Pilot projects would test a modular degree in which a limited share of coursework is done at other universities in the state. The "Digitale Hochschule NRW" platform would continue. A Digitalkolleg NRW would bring lecturers from different universities together on one shared platform. Degree programs such as law or teacher training would be modernized.

The FDP wants to ease the transition from school to university and remove financial and psychological hurdles. BAföG (state student aid) should be applied for and processed fully digitally. Barriers for students with disabilities or chronic illness should also come down.

The FDP wants to make starting university easier. Students should be able to apply for BAföG fully online. BAföG is state money for students. People with disabilities should also be able to study more easily.

New formats such as "summer colleges" would be developed with the universities. The FDP supports the federal government's BAföG reform plans and wants digital structures in all BAföG offices. Cooperation with selected portals on student financing would grow. The "Inklusive Hochschule NRW" program continues; digital assistance systems and the preparation of teaching and exam materials, including in Braille, would be expanded.

The FDP wants to turn the legally constituted student body into a voluntary one. Students would no longer become members automatically upon enrollment, but only if they actively join. The platform justifies this with more participation and control over their own study costs.

Today, students automatically belong to the student body. That is the organization that represents students. The FDP wants to change this. Students should decide for themselves whether to join. That also gives them a say over their costs.

The existing constituted student body would become a "self-determined student body." Membership would arise through an opt-in procedure, meaning by explicit consent. According to the platform, the aim is to strengthen political participation and let students decide on costs of their studies.

The FDP wants to advance basic research, applied research and the transfer of knowledge into business and society. An independent institution would systematically promote knowledge transfer. More professorships would study key technologies so that the state ranks among the world's top research locations.

The FDP wants to strengthen research in the state. Knowledge from universities should reach companies and society faster. A separate institution should take care of this. There should be more professors for important new technologies.

Start-up excellence centers, the founders' scholarship and leave semesters for founders would remain. The new transfer institution would be self-governing and support both technological and social innovations. The platform lists key technologies including artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0, biotechnology, quantum computing, blockchain and cybersecurity. An exchange initiative would revive international exchange of students and researchers after the pandemic.

The FDP wants more permanent positions for ongoing tasks at universities, but considers fixed-term contracts sensible during the qualification phase. Career barriers for women would be removed without additional quotas. Childcare and the tenure-track program would be expanded.

The FDP wants more permanent jobs at universities. Young researchers should still be able to have fixed-term jobs. Women should have the same chances to move up. The FDP does not want new quotas for this. There should be more childcare at universities.

The platform justifies fixed-term contracts for young researchers by saying rotation gives following generations access to academic work. Discrimination in performance-based pay would be reduced. Instead of quotas, the FDP relies on cultural change with female role models, networks, mentoring and transparent monitoring of staff and pay structures. Childcare would grow for students, teaching staff and employees. Tenure track, a predictable path to a permanent professorship, is meant to make careers easier to plan.

The FDP wants to expand academic continuing education and open universities to working people. Digital teaching formats would be recognized and expanded, and a continuing-education fund would be tested. The aim is a more permeable education system and lifelong learning.

The FDP wants people to be able to learn all their lives. Universities should also offer courses for working people. Online courses should be recognized. A new fund should help pay for further education. A fund is a pot of money.

The platform mentions formats such as Massive Open Online Courses, meaning freely accessible online courses. An image campaign would attract more people with vocational qualifications to university offerings. A digital continuing-education campus would become possible at every university, building on infrastructure set up during the pandemic. In the long run, the FDP supports spinning off training academies. Universities would be asked to make rooms available for courses during semester breaks.

The FDP wants universities to be required to end external partnerships that restrict academic freedom. Cooperation with the Chinese Confucius Institutes in North Rhine-Westphalia would be critically reviewed on that basis.

Research should be free. Some university partners limit this freedom. Then universities should have to end the partnership. The FDP wants to take a close look at the Chinese Confucius Institutes in the state.

The platform calls academic freedom a foundation of democracy. The duty to end cooperation would apply in the future to all external partnerships that curtail this freedom. Existing partnerships with Confucius Institutes would be measured against this standard.

The FDP wants an "Agenda Hochschulbau" (university construction agenda) to ease investment at universities and clear the renovation backlog faster. To do so, the division of tasks among agencies, ministries and universities, which the platform sees as hampering investment, would be reorganized.

Many university buildings are old and in bad shape. The FDP wants faster building and repairs. For this, the tasks of the agencies should be divided up in a new way. Universities could also use empty buildings in city centers.

The platform regards the construction option model in the university freedom act as a first step toward more building freedom for universities. New requirements arising from digitization would be factored into planning. Vacant downtown buildings would be included where space allows and the university wants it. For expansion serving practice-oriented research and skilled-worker training in structural change, money from the structural strengthening fund could also be used.

The FDP wants to bring together continuing-education courses from different providers and make them bookable on a shared online platform. A uniform certification framework is meant to ensure quality and comparability. The platform treats lifelong learning as a precondition for a self-determined life and free opinion-forming.

The FDP wants to make adult learning easier. All courses should be on one website. People can book them there. One shared certificate system should make courses easy to compare.

Together with the Federal Employment Agency and the social partners, information and counseling are to be expanded so that more employees use existing funding. The certification framework is also meant to cover training offered by chambers and private providers. Modular, digitally supported courses are to be expanded, especially at universities. The first step is to network what adult education centers, chambers of industry and commerce, vocational schools and universities already offer on one clear website, including the digital distance-training center. Institutions for civic, cultural and family education are to be strengthened further.

The FDP wants all public schools to offer Practical Philosophy as an elective alongside religious education in the long term. Within religion classes, comparing religions and teaching values are to get more room in order to foster tolerance.

The FDP wants the subject Practical Philosophy at all schools. Students can pick it instead of religion class. In religion class, students should learn more about other religions. Every student should visit a church, a mosque and a synagogue.

Comparative religious studies and a focus on values are to be strengthened in all core curricula for religion. Non-religious convictions are to be given equal consideration. Joint Catholic-Protestant religious education is to be expanded. By the end of lower secondary school, every student should have visited the houses of worship of three religions. Topics such as exclusion and hate are to be a fixed part of lessons from elementary school on, with school social work involved.

The FDP wants every student to visit a Nazi-era memorial site and a memorial to East German injustice during their school years. In the party's view, antisemitism is often an education problem that such visits address especially effectively.

All students should visit memorial sites. This should be required. One site should recall the Nazi era. Another should recall injustice in East Germany.

The state funding program for memorial site trips is to be expanded further. The visits are to become binding for all students. The program argues that an on-site visit conveys hate and injustice more vividly than books, films or lessons.

The FDP wants to expand cultural education and grow existing projects such as JeKits into a so-called 3K program. Every child would attend at least three cultural events during their school years. The party sees cultural education as a key to taking part in society.

The FDP wants every child to experience art and culture. Every child should visit at least three cultural events during school. That could be a theater or a museum, for example. This should apply to all types of schools.

The visits are planned for third grade, seventh grade and tenth grade or the final year. The program is to apply at all types of schools and build on existing projects. Beyond that, people of every age and background should have access to a suitable cultural education offering.

The FDP wants to set up a state foundation that enables politically persecuted students from abroad to study in North Rhine-Westphalia. They are to receive a comprehensive scholarship.

In some countries young people cannot study because of their opinions. The FDP wants to help these people. A state foundation should give them money. Then they can study in NRW.

The platform notes that authoritarian governments expel students over their political views or endanger their careers. The FDP condemns this repression. The foundation is to offer full scholarships so that those barred from an academic career at home can attend a university in the state.

The FDP wants to make law studies in NRW more attractive and lower the dropout rate. Students are to be able to earn a Bachelor of Laws in addition to the first state examination. The two state examinations remain the requirement for becoming a judge.

The FDP wants to improve law studies in NRW. Fewer students should drop out. Students should also be able to get a bachelor's degree. The two state exams will stay.

The party builds on the reform of the law on legal training, which it calls a first step. Law schools in Germany serve as the model for the additional bachelor's degree. The system of a first and second state examination is to be kept in NRW.