Grüne on education

The Greens want to raise the quality of early childhood education through binding standards. These are to be written into the contracts between the municipality and daycare providers. Inclusion in daycare centers is also to get a binding basis.

The Greens want better daycare centers. There should be fixed rules for quality. The rules should be part of the contracts with daycare providers. Providers are the groups that run daycare centers. There should also be fixed rules for children with special needs.

The standards are to become part of the funding contracts and include the Bildungsplan 0-10 (education plan for ages 0 to 10) with fixed rules on content. Language education and language support are to be improved at the start of a child's schooling, with multilingualism as part of it. For inclusion in daycare, a binding basis is to be created alongside the schools' "Entwicklungsplan Inklusion" (inclusion development plan), and more staff are to be trained and hired. Daycare centers are to do prevention work on physical, psychological and sexualized violence.

The Greens want to strengthen the last daycare year before children start school in order to make education fairer. Daycare centers and elementary schools are also to work more closely together so the transition goes smoothly.

The Greens want to strengthen the last year of daycare. More children should attend daycare before school. Daycare centers and elementary schools should work together more closely. This should make the move to school easier.

The program argues that children who have not attended daycare often struggle with other children, with large groups and with German. Enough places are to be created for the final year before school, and parents are to get help with registration. The network structure linking daycare centers and elementary schools that already exists in Bremerhaven is to be rolled out across the city of Bremen as well.

The Greens want to train, recruit and retain more early childhood educators. Training is to become more attractive and more often paid. The program points to the heavy strain on staff caused by the shortage of skilled workers.

Daycare centers lack trained staff. The Greens want to win more people for the job. Training should become more attractive. More trainees should get paid. Experienced staff should stay in the job.

The practice-integrated training track is to get more places, and the Bildungsprämie (training bonus) is to rise. The party wants to examine waiving tuition at non-state schools as well. For experienced staff, it is looking for ways to improve pay and wants supervision everywhere plus psychological support for work with refugee children who have lived through war. Training paths for daycare directors are to be developed with universities and vocational schools. Diversity, intersectionality and anti-discrimination are to become a required training module.

The Greens want to require every school to begin a quality development process and provide advisers for it. Schools are to decide on content and priorities themselves. The program cites social inequality and students missing minimum standards in German and math.

The Greens want to improve schools. Every school should work on its quality. Advisers should support the schools. Schools should choose their own priorities. An institute should collect and analyze data for this.

The number of school development advisers is to grow, and a placement office is to improve the support. They are to work from current education research and help schools with steering groups, joint lesson planning and peer classroom visits. The program names inclusion, democracy education and education for sustainable development as guidelines, and options such as mixed-age learning, project-based teaching and alternative grading. The Institut für Qualitätsentwicklung Bremen (IQHB, quality development institute) is to become the central player and work with the advisers.

The Greens want to promote multilingualism in schools and offer lessons in more heritage languages as part of the regular timetable. The program notes that most children in the state of Bremen grow up with more than one language.

Many children in Bremen speak several languages. The Greens want to support this. Schools should offer lessons in more heritage languages. These are languages children know from home. More teachers should be trained for this.

Exams are also to become possible in more languages. Through further training, language education is to take place across all subjects. Teachers are to be trained for additional languages, starting with Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Kurdish and Polish.

The Greens want to improve the quality of inclusive teaching, staffing levels, and teacher training and continuing education. Assistants are increasingly to be employed permanently at schools. According to the program, the goal is the best possible participation for all children with impairments.

In Bremen, children with and without disabilities learn together. The Greens want to improve this further. Schools should get more permanent assistants. Children with autism or ADHD should get help more easily. They should not have to tell everyone about their condition.

Students with autism, ADHD, reading and spelling difficulties and other forms of neurodiversity are to get quiet rooms or accommodations more easily without having to disclose their condition publicly. Inclusion for children with learning difficulties is to be expanded and carried out consistently for students with challenging behavior. School assistants are to become a fixed part of schools and be deployed as needed. Plans are to be developed to close the gap between demand and available staff in school social work and assistance.

The Greens want to close the special-needs school on Fritz-Gansberg-Straße as planned when its guarantee of continued operation ends in 2024. In its place, mainstream schools are to get more preventive support, and intensive educational programs are to be set up outside the regular school.

Bremen has a special school for children with social and emotional difficulties. The Greens want to close this school in 2024. The children should learn at regular schools. These schools should get more help. For hard times there should be extra programs outside the school.

The school teaches children and young people who need support in their social and emotional development. By 2024, the structures that make its closure possible are to be in place. Mainstream schools are to expand team teaching with two staff members, multi-professional teams, multi-family classes and temporary learning groups, backed by a mobile support service. New education units at the Regional Education and Support Centers (ReBUZ) are to offer intensive educational programs. These are meant to stabilize students who temporarily cannot cope with the regular school.

The Greens want to support schools in expanding all-day schooling and, in the medium term, move everywhere to the compulsory all-day model, in which the whole school day is mandatory. Homework is to serve only as practice, so that children do not need help from parents.

The Greens want more all-day schools. Later, all schools should have a fixed all-day program. This means all children stay at school until the afternoon. Homework should only be for practice. Children should not need help from their parents for it.

For the expansion, the Greens want to develop plans for recruiting well-qualified staff. The rigid lesson schedule is to be broken up so the day can be structured around children's needs, with shared meals, enough breaks and a variety of activities. This is meant to make room for project work and learning on self-chosen topics. Homework is to be used only to reinforce what has been learned and to practice routines. As long as schools do not yet run the compulsory all-day model, homework supervision at school is to be supported.

The Greens want to give schools noticeably more money for teaching and learning materials and distribute it more strongly according to social criteria. The program cites rising student numbers and high inflation as reasons.

Schools need money for books and materials. The Greens want to give them more money for this. Schools with many poor families should get the most. For many parents there, school materials cost too much.

The distribution of the budget is to be tied more closely to social indicators. The main aim is to relieve schools where many students come from families with little money. According to the program, buying school supplies is a heavy burden for these families, and schools often already cover it from their own budget.

The Greens want to permanently fund tablets and digital learning infrastructure in schools and introduce technical support by professional staff. Digital and analog forms of learning are to be better combined, without digital replacing analog.

Schools in Bremen have tablets. The Greens want to secure the money for them for the long term. Experts should take care of the technology. Teachers then no longer have to do that. Learning with tablets and learning without them should fit together well.

As an example of professional support, the program names digital caretakers, so that teachers no longer have to install updates on student devices. Teachers are to receive targeted training at their own school, and schools are to get extra resources for using digital media in a pedagogically sound way. Software licenses provided statewide are to be secured, and schools are to be able to buy digital tools that fit their needs. To do this, the allocations for teaching and learning materials are to be reorganized to include digital textbooks as well.

The Greens want teachers at schools with a high social index to have fewer required teaching hours. Disadvantaged neighborhoods are also to get enough teachers and early-childhood educators, because according to the program far fewer people apply for jobs there.

Some schools are in poor neighborhoods. Work there is especially hard for teachers. The Greens want them to teach fewer hours there. That gives them more time to talk with parents. These neighborhoods should also get enough teachers.

The time gained is to go into working with parents and professional support services and into school development. Schools are to get rooms for quiet work and staff breaks, and supervision sessions are meant to reveal overload early. Heavily burdened principals are to receive at least one additional administrative employee and later an administrative manager; shared leadership models will be supported. In talks with unions, other states and the federal level, teachers' working time is to be redefined and measured in weekly working hours rather than teaching hours.

The Greens want to establish teams drawn from different professions at schools and gradually extend school social work to all schools. In the program's view, this is the best way to handle the growing demands on schools.

Schools should not only have teachers. The Greens want teams from many professions. These include social workers and speech therapists, for example. They should all work together as equals. Step by step, every school should get school social work.

In these teams, educators, social workers, special-needs teachers, psychologists and classroom teachers are to work together as equals. Schools are also to be able to hire occupational therapists and speech therapists through the education authority. This is meant to allow suitable support in a single school for all with a very diverse student body. School social work is to keep growing in the next legislative term at both general and vocational schools.

The Greens want to make it easier and faster for immigrant teachers and career changers to enter the school service. The aim is to keep potential staff from failing because of excessive hurdles and to make teaching staffs more diverse.

Bremen does not have enough teachers. The Greens want to make it easier to become a teacher. This applies to people from other countries and from other jobs. They can catch up on missing language skills while working. Young people should also get into teacher training more easily.

The plan is to open the school service to teachers with only one subject and to adjust qualification requirements and the language level demanded of foreign teachers. Missing language skills and qualifications are to be acquired on the job, and this will also be required. Following Bremerhaven's example, Bremen is to offer mentoring, regular training and clear routes to formal qualifications. Together with the university, admission criteria for teacher training in shortage subjects are to be lowered. A volunteer service in schools is to open a direct route into teacher training, including for applicants who fall short of the grade cutoff (numerus clausus).

The Greens want to pay prospective teachers more during the Referendariat (post-university practical teacher training). Those who commit to working in Bremen afterward are to receive an additional bonus.

After university, future teachers do practical training. It is called Referendariat. The Greens want to pay more money during this time. Those who stay in Bremen afterward get an extra amount. This should bring more teachers to work in Bremen.

A continuously updated forecast of staffing needs is to show whether there are enough university and training places; the number of places will be adjusted accordingly. The bonus is tied to a commitment to stay in the state after the training period. The Greens want a comparable arrangement for early-childhood educators and social education workers.

The Greens want to renew Bremen's cross-party school agreement (Schulkonsens), which expires in 2028, by starting talks early with the other democratic parties. Rather than fixing structures, the new agreement should set goals so that every type of school is open to every child. They also want a pilot school running from grade 1 to grade 13.

Bremen's parties have an agreement about schools. It ends in 2028. The Greens want to talk early about a new one. Every school should be open to every child. One test school should cover grades 1 to 13.

The platform calls for talks on what follows the school consensus to begin in the coming legislative term. Elementary schools, Oberschulen, Gymnasien and vocational schools would each find their own path to becoming inclusive, with reliable support. More mixed-age learning is meant to let students learn at their own pace without repeating or skipping a grade. The upper grades would be reorganized, for example into modules, so that the Abitur can also be completed after four years. The Greens justify the grade 1–13 pilot school with experience from Scandinavia, Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Greens want to raise the standing of vocational schools so they rank equally with general schools and university study. Young people who do not find a training place after lower secondary school should get more support. School sites are to be modernized along the lines of the existing campus plans.

The Greens want to strengthen vocational schools. Job training should count as much as a university degree. Some young people find no training place after school. They should get more help. Vocational schools should get better buildings and equipment.

The transition system is meant to offer every young person a route to being ready for training, whatever qualifications they have so far. More school social work at vocational schools and closer cooperation with Oberschulen are meant to help. Practice-oriented training programs with lighter theory requirements (Fachpraktiker) would be extended to more fields, and vocational students would get help using Erasmus+. The campus plans would be carried out because, in the platform's view, the aging buildings no longer meet today's needs. School networks are meant to ease cooperation with training companies, and schools would get more control over their own management.

The Greens want young people to have access to historical and civic education outside school as well. To that end, the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) is to be strengthened and reach more young people. Civic education for working adults is also to be made easier.

The Greens want more civic education for young people. The state agency for civic education should get more support. It should work more often in schools and youth centers. Working people should also find it easier to take civic courses.

The platform describes the agency as a partner for building democratic awareness and an awareness of civil rights. Its programs would be expanded in schools and youth recreation centers. Lecture series, conferences and symposia would be recognized more easily under Bremen's educational leave law (Bildungszeitgesetz).

The Greens want to press in future budgets for education spending in the state of Bremen to keep rising. The goal is to bring spending per student step by step up to the level of the other city-states, Berlin and Hamburg.

The Greens want to spend more money on education. Bremen should spend as much per student as Berlin and Hamburg. This should happen step by step. The money is for school buildings, all-day schools, inclusion and digital tools.

The platform notes that education spending has already risen sharply in recent years. As reasons for further need it lists quality development, school construction, expansion of all-day schooling, inclusion, digitalization and recruiting skilled staff. Catching up with the other city-states is to happen in stages.

The Greens want universities and research institutes to have a stronger presence in downtown Bremen, including a partial move of the University of Bremen. The platform calls this a historic opportunity for both the universities and the city center. A separate plan is to cover the space that would be freed up at the current campus.

The Greens want more science in downtown Bremen. Part of the university should move there. Other colleges should be included too. There should be a separate plan for the old campus.

The platform says the earlier focus on a single site, the former Sparkasse property at Brill, was too narrow and wants several buildings examined. The needs of all universities and research institutes are to be assessed systematically and fed into an overall concept. The various groups within the universities are to be involved continuously and on an equal footing. The project is to be part of updating the Wissenschaftsplan 2025 (the state's science plan). As preconditions, the platform names affordable housing, places to spend time without having to buy anything, and food and culture options for young people.

The Greens want to replace the state's science plan, which expires in 2025, with a Science Plan 2030 that gives public universities a reliable financial outlook. Spending per student should not be cut further but should gradually move toward the national average.

Bremen has a plan for its universities. This plan ends in 2025. The Greens want a new plan up to 2030. Universities should know for sure how much money they get. Money per student should not go down. It should rise bit by bit.

The new plan is meant to set out the role and goals of science in the state and take the research institutes into account. Institutes and all groups of university members are to be involved in drafting it. The Greens want more core funding instead of third-party and project funding, including at federal and EU level, and regard federal money as indispensable. The private Constructor University is expected to manage without public subsidies in the future.

The Greens want students to be able to study without money worries. They will push at the federal level for higher BAföG (student aid) rates and aid that does not depend on parents' income, and they will not bring back an administrative fee for students in Bremen.

Money should not stop anyone from studying. The Greens want higher BAföG. BAföG is money from the state for students. It should no longer depend on what parents earn. Bremen should get more places in student housing. Each campus should offer counseling for students in a crisis.

BAföG is to rise enough to cover higher rents and living costs as well. The Greens want the administrative fee to stay abolished. More dorm places are planned, especially in Bremerhaven, along with affordable student housing in the city center. The Studierendenwerk (student services organization) is to be solidly funded so that rents and cafeteria prices stay low, and cafeterias should be easy to reach even on the edges of campus. Psychosocial counseling is to be available at every site and online; students who care for relatives should be able to get accommodations.

The Greens want to keep funding research in the state as a whole while setting priorities, for example in climate, health, materials, computer science and aerospace. They stand by the universities' Zivilklausel (civil clause), the self-commitment not to do research for military purposes.

The Greens want to keep funding research in Bremen. Some topics should get special attention. These include climate, health, robots and space travel. The universities have chosen not to do research for the military. The Greens still support this.

In climate research, topics such as climate adaptation and urban planning or health and climate change are to be linked more closely; marine science is seen as important here. For health sciences, the Greens want to look into a central health campus in Bremen or Bremerhaven. Social sciences, materials research for sustainable construction, robotics and aerospace engineering are also to be strengthened. The Greens want to accompany a new bid by the university for excellence status constructively but critically, because in their view the process favors institutions that are already well funded. Partnerships such as the one with the University of Oldenburg are to grow, and universities are to become more visible in Bremen's city center.

The Greens want to enlarge Hochschule Bremerhaven with new professorships, faculties and more study places, and to better equip Hochschule Bremen for teaching. Dual study programs are to grow in both cities because, in the party's view, they secure skilled workers for local companies.

The university of applied sciences in Bremerhaven should grow. It should get more subjects and more students. The one in Bremen should get more money for teaching. There should be more dual study programs. In these, you study and work at a company at the same time.

In Bremerhaven, the range of subjects and the number of students are to increase, with money for internationalization and diversity to make the site more attractive to students from abroad. Together with Hochschule Bremerhaven, the Greens want to explore options for doctoral degrees. New dual programs should also allow for a master's degree. Hochschule Bremen is to get teaching resources that match its higher student numbers, plus adequate core funding and enough space for linking up with business. At the University of Bremen, the sports education program is to return.

The Greens want everyone who meets the requirements to be able to study, regardless of background, money or disabilities. To that end, German language requirements are to be lowered or dropped in suitable subjects, people with vocational qualifications admitted more easily, and universities made accessible.

The Greens want to open university to more people. Some subjects do not need very good German. The language rules there should be relaxed. People with job training should find it easier to study. Universities should have no barriers for people with disabilities.

The higher education act is to be amended for the lower language requirements, which is meant to make Bremen more attractive to international students. The Greens want to keep promoting the universities' high degree of internationalization and remove financial hurdles. The right of access for people with vocational qualifications is to be widened. Discrimination on campus is also to be reduced as far as possible.

The Greens want all four groups at universities to carry equal weight on every governing body. At present, professors have more say than students and staff. People who serve on these bodies are to get relief from other duties.

Universities have committees that make decisions. Professors have more votes there today. The Greens want to change that. All groups should have the same say. People on committees should get less other work in return.

The platform acknowledges that equal four-way representation raises unresolved legal questions. Committee work is to be recognized and offset, for example through a lighter teaching load, adjusted working hours, pay, or extensions of fixed-term contracts. Hiring committees for professorships are to be diverse and gender-balanced and must document their search for candidates. The Greens want to examine similar relief for women's representatives at the universities.

The Greens want to expand teacher training to ease the teacher shortage in Bremen and Bremerhaven. The sports education program at the University of Bremen is to be brought back. Gender studies are also to become a firm part of research and teaching again.

Bremen does not have enough teachers. So the Greens want to strengthen teacher training. The sports education program should return to the university. Gender studies should also get more room again. Gender studies look at the roles of the sexes.

All teacher training programs are to teach basic digital skills. The Greens want to examine whether the two practical semesters in teacher training can be paid, and then put this into practice. Bremen and Bremerhaven are to cooperate closely on teacher training. The platform is critical of the decline of gender studies in several fields and wants to counter it through target agreements with the universities.

The Greens want to raise the quality of teaching at universities. Instructors are to have a regular right to training in teaching methods, and there is to be more permanent staff for teaching and program administration. Ongoing teaching duties are no longer to be handed to lower-paid adjunct lecturers.

The Greens want better teaching at universities. Teachers should be able to get training every five years. There should be more permanent jobs for teaching. Adjunct lecturers are helpers with lower pay. They should no longer do permanent tasks.

The right to training in teaching is to apply at least every five years, along with advice on options. Teaching staff must also be able to show training in diversity skills. The additional permanent positions are to go to people with strong teaching qualifications. Adjunct teaching contracts are only to supplement the course offering, mainly to bring in practical experience. Their funding is to be redesigned so that preparation and follow-up time are counted.

The Greens want international cooperation in research and teaching only where it benefits democracy. Propaganda and intimidation of critical students or researchers by representatives of other states are not to occur at Bremen's universities. The party rejects cooperation with the Confucius Institute.

Universities work with partners in other countries. The Greens say this must help democracy. Other states must not threaten students. The Greens name China here. There should be no work with the Confucius Institute.

The platform calls for particular care with partners from non-democratic countries. As an example, it names propaganda events linked to the Chinese government and threats against critical students. It also considers restrictions on academic freedom unacceptable. Confucius Institutes are language and culture centers funded by the Chinese state.

The Greens want more Bremen schools to take part in the EU exchange program Erasmus Plus and more Europaschulen (Europe schools) to be set up. Students and trainees should experience European exchanges early on.

Erasmus Plus is an EU program for exchanges abroad. The Greens want more Bremen schools to join. Trainees should go abroad more often too. There should be more Europe schools with partner schools.

The party's goal is for as many trainees as university students to come to Bremen and go abroad in Europe through Erasmus Plus. There would be more Europe schools with more partner schools. The platform also points to the Erasmus Plus coordination office that has already been created. State funding for the university network YUFE would be secured.

The Greens want children to learn hands-on where food comes from and how to cook healthy, affordable meals. Schools and daycare centers are to get gardens and teaching kitchens for this. At the federal level, the party wants a ban on advertising for unhealthy, sugary products that targets children.

Children should learn where their food comes from. Schools and daycare centers should get a garden and a kitchen for learning. This applies where there is enough space. The Greens also want a ban on ads for unhealthy food aimed at children.

The platform describes understanding food and its effects on the body and the planet as the basis of healthy eating. Children are to learn how fruit and vegetables are grown and how to prepare inexpensive, healthy meals. Gardens and teaching kitchens are planned wherever space allows. Schools and daycare centers are to connect with community farming projects in the region, such as community-supported agriculture. The "Essbare Stadt" (Edible City) program is to grow, organizations working on sustainable food are to get support, and public spots for distributing food are to be permitted. The party wants to pursue the ban on child-targeted advertising through the federal government.