Grüne on education

The Greens want to establish environmental education permanently in every borough and create a central office for it within the Senate. Schoolyards and daycare yards are to become near-natural, and Berlin would get a "Klimahaus" (climate house) as a place of learning.

The Greens want people to learn more about the environment and the climate. Every borough should have offers for this. Schoolyards and daycare yards should become greener. Berlin should get a climate house. People can learn and meet there.

School gardening centers are to be kept, environmental education centers and projects would grow, and the urban nature ranger program would be enlarged. Near-natural yards at schools and daycare centers and further nature experience spaces are to be created everywhere. They are meant to give children healthy places to spend time, support biodiversity and allow playful learning. The "Klimahaus" is intended as a central place for education, encounters and participation.

The Greens want to make master craftsman training free of charge, more flexible and more gender-equitable. Trades businesses are to keep locations close to residential areas and get more parking for commercial vehicles. The party also wants to support the training of refugees in companies.

Skilled trades matter for climate protection in Berlin. Training to become a master craftsman should cost nothing. People should be able to do it alongside their job. Trades firms should be able to stay in residential areas. Firms should get help when they train refugees.

Master training is to be possible both alongside work and directly after an apprenticeship. The party wants to promote advancement, new businesses and business succession in the trades and to support firms that help employees qualify as masters. It wants to discuss with stakeholders whether parts of the master training could be offered during the Abitur at Oberstufenzentren (vocational upper secondary schools), following Thuringia's example. Together with the chambers, companies are to be guided in taking on refugees as apprentices. The platform sees the trades as key to the climate-neutral transition, for instance through solar panels, heat pumps and insulation.

The Greens want to redesign long-term funding contracts together with the universities and raise funding reliably. This is meant to provide planning security and restore the trust that, in the platform's view, was lost through budget cuts and the termination of the contracts. A building renovation program is to be added.

The Greens want new contracts with the universities. The universities should have a say. They should reliably get more money. That way they can plan better. Lecture halls, labs and libraries should be renovated too.

The contracts are to be the main steering tool of Berlin's science policy and to be drawn up with the involvement of university bodies. Funding is to be put on a legally secure footing and absorb rising costs. The platform commits to academic freedom and university autonomy and wants an open dialogue between the Senate, universities and research institutions. A renovation and modernization drive is to make buildings climate-friendly, accessible and digitally up to date. Administration and research are also to be relieved of bureaucracy.

The Greens want to use legislation to significantly raise the share of permanent positions in academia, especially for postdoctoral researchers. Adjunct lecturers are to be paid better, and student employees are to get a new collective agreement. According to the platform, Berlin should again become a model for attractive academic careers.

Many researchers only have temporary contracts. The Greens want to create more permanent jobs. A law should make this possible. Adjunct lecturers should get more pay. Students who work at universities should get a new union contract.

The legal basis is to comply with the constitution and benefit postdocs in particular. A binding dialogue with the universities on reducing fixed-term contracts is planned, combined with incentives for more permanent posts. Permanent tasks are to be carried out only by university employees. The new collective agreement should allow students of any social background to live on academic work; at the federal level the party backs a TV-Stud (collective agreement for student employees). It also wants to promote flat hierarchies and department structures.

The Greens want to make Berlin the leading location for research on the resilience of democracy. The platform cites growing anti-democratic movements as the reason. Initiatives that take in threatened researchers and students are to grow as well.

The Greens want more research on protecting democracy. Berlin should be a leader in this. Topics include fake videos and hate on the internet. Berlin should also take in threatened researchers from other countries.

The plan covers everything from basic to applied research. The Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society is to be secured permanently. Research on deepfakes, digital hate speech, especially against FLINTA* researchers, and conspiracy narratives is to be expanded. Cooperation with countries where democratic freedoms are under pressure is to become more easily accessible.

The Greens want to anchor European topics firmly in school curricula and give all learners access to exchange experiences in Europe. A new research center on the upheavals in Eastern Europe is also to be founded.

Students should learn more about Europe. This should be a fixed part of the curriculum. All learners should be able to spend time in other European countries. The Greens also want to found a new research center on Eastern Europe.

The plan includes a "Concerted Action on Europe Education," a joint strategy of everyone involved that promotes exchange programs to schools and youth institutions. Pro-European education initiatives are to be funded and the Europaschule (Europe school) model extended to all areas of education. A "Centre for Eastern European Transitions" is to serve as a site for education and research, enable dialogue across borders, and foster understanding of past and present transformations.

The Greens want to keep and strengthen voluntary religious and worldview classes in Berlin schools. The Alevi community is to get its own professorship at Humboldt University.

In Berlin, religion class is voluntary. The Greens want to keep it that way. The classes should get better conditions. The Alevi community should get its own professor at the university.

The program rejects winding down the Berlin model and wants to improve the conditions for these classes. The Alevi professorship at Humboldt University is meant to give teacher training for Alevi religious education an academic foundation. The Greens also want to make Alevi life more visible and support volunteer structures in Alevi communities. Projects such as multi-faith daycare centers are supported.

The Greens want more staff per child in daycare centers and want to expand language education. The platform sees daycare as a place for learning and living in which free play has an important role.

The Greens want more staff for the children in daycare. Then the staff have more time for each child. Children should learn language better in daycare. Their first language should get support too.

According to the platform, daycare is more than supervision; education there is understood as a holistic process that also prepares children for school. This is to show in how the Berliner Bildungsprogramm (Berlin's daycare curriculum) is carried out. A better staffing ratio is meant to let staff do their jobs well. Language education is also to support the first languages of children who do not speak German at home. This includes sign languages and alternative forms of communication needed because of a disability.

The Greens want children with limited German skills to get help earlier. Following Hamburg's model, the language assessment for four-year-olds would be followed by mandatory support programs so that children can keep up in class later.

Some children do not speak German well before school starts. The Greens want to help these children earlier. Children take a language test at age four. After that, there should be fixed support programs. Hamburg already does this.

The platform calls for mandatory support programs after the language assessment of four-year-olds. Language learning is meant to happen jointly in daycare and at home, so everyday language and family education programs would be expanded. Staff from the former Sprach-Kitas (language daycare) program should keep using and passing on their expertise in Berlin daycare centers. Training and continuing education for language specialists would be introduced and expanded as needed, especially for children with a high need for support.

The Greens want to develop all schools along the lines of Berlin's award-winning schools. In the longer run, new exam formats and competency-based feedback would replace number grades. Fewer young people should leave school without a diploma.

The Greens want to improve schools. Good Berlin schools should be the model. Later, students should get detailed feedback on their learning instead of grades. Fewer teens should leave school without a diploma. Students should give their teachers anonymous feedback once a year.

Besides reading, writing and math, schools would teach education for sustainable development, social learning and so-called future skills. The platform counts mandatory lessons on contemporary history, the division of Germany and East German history as part of democracy education. An overall school quality strategy would be developed with broad participation; measures would be evaluated scientifically, and the necessary number of comparative tests and exams would be reviewed. Annual anonymous student feedback for teachers would become mandatory in all school types and grade levels.

The Greens want to double the number of Gemeinschaftsschulen (schools where children learn together through all grades) so that every district has them. The platform argues that, according to studies, learning together for longer raises performance and reduces inequality. The move from elementary to secondary school would be reformed.

In Gemeinschaftsschulen, children learn together for many years. The Greens want twice as many of these schools in Berlin. The party says learning together makes education fairer. Moving to secondary school should cause less pressure.

Gemeinschaftsschulen would get better support and offer room for joint, inclusive learning. Elementary schools would also keep children learning together for longer, with grades 5 and 6 strengthened. The transition to secondary school would be made fairer so that children in grades 4 to 6 feel less pressure. The project "Familienzentren an Grundschulen" (family centers at elementary schools) would become permanent. Regional school supervisory offices would be organized by neighborhood and take a stronger advisory role.

The Greens want to guarantee the right to inclusive education with a binding implementation plan drawn up together with people with disabilities. Instead of new special-needs schools, inclusive focus schools would be created. The state would pay for school transport services for children with impairments.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. The Greens want a fixed plan for this. People with disabilities should help write it. There should be no new special-needs schools. Instead, there should be schools with a focus on inclusion. The state should pay for rides to school.

The basis is Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Funds for individual and special-needs support would go specifically to the schools with the greatest need; the even distribution introduced by the current Senate would be reversed. Transport costs would be covered during school terms and vacations. According to the platform, more than 3,000 children with disabilities or illnesses, including Long COVID and ME/CFS, receive little or no schooling; legal changes would allow online schooling in individual cases. The plan also includes a training drive, vacation care and closer cooperation between schools, youth services and the health sector.

The Greens want public funding for private schools to depend more on how many children from poorer families they enroll. Schools with a good social mix would get more money, those with a persistently poor mix less. For the party, the public school system comes first.

Private schools get money from the state. The Greens want to share out this money differently. Schools with many children from poor families should get more. Schools with few such children should get less. All children should be able to attend private schools.

The platform acknowledges that private schools make a contribution in Berlin. In line with the constitutional ban on segregating students by parental wealth, they would be opened further to all children regardless of family income. Funding is meant to reflect how much social responsibility a school takes on. Schools whose social mix is poor and not improving would receive less public money than before. Private schools should continue to take part in integrating refugee children.

The Greens want to hire more school social workers and expand school stations (on-site support centers) at all Berlin schools. Multiprofessional teams would come to schools in addition to teachers. The aim is to secure psychosocial support and reduce social disadvantage.

The Greens want more social workers in schools. They help children with problems. Every school should have a support station. Other specialists should also support the teachers. That way staff should be less overworked.

School social work would also grow at general and vocational schools and at special-needs support centers. Existing school stations would be secured and kept at their current quality for the long term. The platform announces investment in multiprofessional teams, sustainable school buildings and modern learning concepts. The teacher shortage is to be tackled and school staff relieved.

The Greens want computer science and media education to be a mandatory part of the curriculum from first grade in all school types. Students should understand algorithms and artificial intelligence and handle digital media critically. The party backs phone restrictions where a school considers them right.

Children should learn about computers and media from first grade. This should be required at all schools. They should be able to spot false news. Every school should get a media team. Schools can decide on phone rules themselves.

Media literacy centers would be expanded, and every school would get a media team. These teams help teachers and students recognize disinformation, check sources and understand AI applications. Media and information literacy would be built into the curriculum across subjects, for example by analyzing manipulated images in art class. The party supports limits on private phone use when the individual school sees them as the best solution.

The Greens want schools to be run more democratically. Student councils would get their own funds and pedagogical support, and elementary schools would also get an elected council representing all students. Civic education would be written into Berlin's constitution as an educational goal.

The Greens want more democracy in schools. Student councils should get their own money. Children in elementary schools should also elect a council. Civic education should be written into Berlin's constitution.

Student councils and the district-level student committees would receive their own budgets and pedagogical support. Elementary schools would get an elected council representing all students. Civic education as an educational goal and the democratic organization of schools would be added to the state constitution, as is the case in most German states according to the platform. In addition, qualified environmental and wilderness educators would get easier access to Berlin's forests.

The Greens want to extend guaranteed supervision at elementary schools until 2:30 p.m., including for children without an after-school care contract. Free school lunches would also be offered from 7th grade onward. The party also wants to promote a later school start and keep the family centers at elementary schools.

Elementary schools should look after children longer, until 2:30 p.m. This also applies to children without an after-school care contract. School lunch should also be free from 7th grade on. Schools should be able to start later in the morning.

Supervision time would grow by at least one hour. During that time, children would deepen what they have learned with professional guidance, so that no homework is left for the evening. This is also meant to make it easier for schools to choose a later start; the platform cites studies saying an 8 a.m. start makes learning harder. A high-quality lunch would be free for all students from 7th grade on, as recommended by a citizens' council on nutrition. Family centers at elementary schools would be secured financially, and schools would cooperate more closely with sports clubs, music schools and adult education centers.

The Greens want to remove paving from schoolyards, plant them and renovate old school buildings. Schools would be allowed to open their yards, playgrounds and common rooms to the neighborhood. Students' mental health would also get more attention.

Schoolyards should become greener, with more trees and less concrete. Old schools should be repaired. Schools should be able to open their yards to the neighborhood. Children's mental health should matter more.

Schoolyards would get unsealed ground, outdoor classrooms and new shade trees. Opening yards, playgrounds and common rooms is meant to improve ties within the neighborhood; school supervision would be organized by local area. Renovation of old buildings would continue. On mental health, the party wants to link support systems more closely, promote awareness in schools and make student well-being a quality criterion in evaluation and school development.

The Greens want to end separate schooling inside refugee shelters and offer every child a place at a regular school. Refugee children would move into regular classes as quickly as possible. Instruction in students' family languages would be expanded as well.

Refugee children should no longer be taught in shelters. They should go to regular schools. They should quickly learn together with other children. Children should also get lessons in their family language.

A plan based on age and skills would govern the move from Willkommensklassen (welcome classes) into regular classes. "German as a second language" would be recognized as a school subject with a binding curriculum, along with extra training for teachers. Students' family languages would be recorded in order to offer first-language instruction at more schools and in more languages. The sites of the Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (a bilingual public school program) would be expanded.

The Greens want to record teachers' working hours and use that as the basis for a new working-time model. Every school would have teams drawn from several professions, without cutting teaching positions. Trainee teachers would also have to teach fewer hours.

Teachers should have a lighter workload. Schools should record exactly how long teachers work. A new model for working time should come from that. People from different professions should work together in schools.

The new working-time model would cover every task a teacher performs and take the differing conditions of schools into account. Multi-professional teams are meant to give teachers more time for teaching; time for teamwork would be counted. The increase in required teaching hours during the Referendariat (teacher traineeship) would be reversed. The party wants to even out differences between civil-servant teachers and salaried teachers. Once enough fully trained teachers are available again, smaller learning groups and more individual support would follow.

The Greens want to make sure the teacher shortage does not fall mainly on schools in difficult circumstances. To that end, hiring quotas would return and a scholarship would tie students to understaffed schools. Teachers with foreign qualifications would find it easier to enter the school system.

Berlin does not have enough teachers. Some schools are hit especially hard. The Greens want to spread teachers more evenly. Students get money if they later work at such schools. Teachers from abroad should get a job more easily.

The scholarship goes to student teachers who commit to working for five years after their traineeship at a school whose staffing has been below the Berlin average for at least two years. For international teachers, the single-subject teacher would be reintroduced, along with a simpler recognition process and free preparatory and German courses. Career changers without pedagogical training would be prepared before or at the start of their work. A program would develop suitable teachers into school leaders, especially for schools in critical situations. Continuing training would be practical and quality-assured.

The Greens reject a compulsory 11th school year for young people without a follow-up placement. Instead, they favor a flexible Perspektivenjahr (orientation year) and more career guidance in schools. Every young person should have a path forward, even without a diploma.

The Greens do not want a compulsory 11th school year. Instead, there should be an orientation year. That year should be flexible. Schools should teach more about jobs. Everyone should get to know several companies.

The orientation year would grow out of the existing Integrierte Berufsausbildungsvorbereitung (IBA, an integrated pre-vocational program). In grades 8 through 10, all students would get to know at least five companies through internships and practical days. Career guidance free of gender stereotypes would become mandatory in all school types, with training for teachers. The district youth employment agencies would become one-stop shops with more resources. The vocational upper-secondary centers (OSZ) would keep their academic upper-level tracks, get extra staff and offer more ways to earn the Abitur alongside vocational training.

The Greens want to create a guarantee of a vocational training place, funded by a levy. Initial vocational training would be fundamentally reorganized, with competence centers and a new state institute. The party points to the sharp decline in company-based training places in Berlin.

Every young person should get a training place. This is called a training guarantee. A levy pays for it. That means companies pay into a shared fund. There should also be more training at schools.

Competence centers would bring together company-based, school-based and inter-company training and act as equal partners to employers. A state institute for vocational education is planned as an organizational pillar. School-based and non-company programs would grow mainly where employers offer too few places. Trainees at all companies would be able to file complaints and get help in a crisis, and women in skilled trades would get targeted support. Sustainability would become a fixed part of vocational education, teachers would be trained in the use of AI, and European exchange programs would be promoted at vocational schools.

The Greens want to give students more exam attempts and strengthen part-time study. In the party's view, a final failure often has disproportionate consequences for those affected. Curricula would become more flexible.

Students should be allowed to retake exams more often. Today, a final failure means you can never study that subject again. The Greens think that is too harsh. Studying part-time should become easier.

The party wants to examine whether paths to alternative degrees can be created, citing law studies as a model. Teaching and exams would be geared more closely to students' life circumstances. Freedom of choice and self-determination in studies would be protected. Qualifications, especially in current research fields, would be easier to earn across all of Berlin's universities.

The Greens want to found a university construction company to renovate the buildings of Berlin's universities. The company would finance the work through loans. The aim is to stop the buildings' decay and clear the renovation backlog.

Many buildings at Berlin's universities are in bad shape. The Greens want to found a new construction company. It should repair the buildings. It should pay attention to energy and the environment. The money should come from loans.

The company would be set up together with WISTA Management GmbH. It would draw up an overall plan for energy-efficient and ecological renovation and carry it out itself. The work would be financed through loans.

The Greens want universities to remain places for peaceful protest and controversial debate, and want to preserve their autonomy against political interference. At the same time, all students, especially Jewish students, should be able to study safely. Participation in governing bodies is to be expanded.

The Greens want to protect peaceful protest at universities. Politicians should interfere less in universities. Everyone should be able to study there safely. This is especially true for Jewish students. Students should have more say.

The platform calls for more moderated, easily accessible debate spaces intended to counter polarization. Antisemitic and discriminatory statements, violence and vandalism are to be prevented through prevention programs. Jewish and Palestinian organizations should be able to take part in the debate on equal terms. The Greens back initiatives for governing bodies in which the four university groups have equal representation. Together with the universities, they want to work out which rules would better protect them against anti-democratic attacks.

The Greens want to use the conference of state justice ministers to start a reform of legal education that involves everyone concerned. Topics such as racism, sexism and antisemitism are to become a fixed part of the training. In the legal traineeship, the stipend is to rise and the cap on additional earnings is to be dropped.

The Greens want to change how lawyers are trained. Everyone involved should have a say. There should be less required material. Grades should be easier to understand. Trainees should get more money. The traineeship is the practical part of the training.

The debate is to include students, legal trainees, lecturers, examination offices and professional associations, among others. The training is to firmly include engagement with various forms of discrimination and critical reflection on the law. Further goals are more transparent grading, less mandatory material, gender-balanced examination boards, blind second marking in the state exams, and a critical approach to artificial intelligence. In the traineeship, practical performance is to count more, the stipend is to rise, and the cap on additional earnings is to go. A teaching concept for the trainee study groups is to be developed with the Kammergericht (Berlin's highest regular court).