Grüne on education

The Greens want to permanently embed education for sustainable development from daycare through adult education. People active in nature, environmental and climate protection would get long-term funding. The state's environmental education office would become a statewide networking hub.

The Greens want everyone to learn about sustainability. Sustainability means living in a way that does not harm nature. This should be taught in daycare, schools and adult classes. People who work for the environment should get funding for a long time.

The platform treats education for sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a cross-cutting topic for all levels of education. Professionals and volunteers in nature, environmental and climate protection are to receive long-term funding, reliable structures and local networking. The Landeszentrale für Umweltaufklärung (state office for environmental education) would be strengthened and developed into a networking hub for the whole state.

The Greens want to give the state's universities reliable core funding and strengthen basic research. Universities are also meant to lead on climate protection, and students are to get more say.

The Greens want to give universities enough money. Universities should protect the climate. Solar panels will go on their roofs. Students should have more say.

The platform calls for solid core funding and stronger basic research, whose benefits often show only later. Universities applying for funding under the Excellence Strategy are to be supported. For climate protection, it plans solar panels on every roof, green outdoor areas, sustainable mobility management, and a building renovation plan that universities may carry out themselves. Sustainability managers are to oversee this on site. In addition, student assistants are to get collective pay agreements and the academic senate is to be strengthened.

The Greens want to give the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) more money and push for a reform of BAföG (federal student aid). The aid should offset rising costs, especially for housing, and reach more students.

The Greens want to give student services more money. These run dorms and cafeterias. BAföG should get better. BAföG is state money for students. More students should be able to get it.

The platform lists the semester transit pass, affordable dorm rooms, and healthy, sustainable cafeteria food as good conditions for students. Counseling services are to be expanded to lower barriers. Students from non-academic families, with disabilities, or in difficult life situations are to get targeted support. Mental health is to become a fixed part of the first phase of study, and the party backs longer standard periods of study to reduce pressure. Participatory research in which people with disabilities take part as equals is also to be supported.

The Greens want to make academic employment more secure and predictable. Following Bremen's example, more permanent mid-level academic positions are to be created, and at the federal level the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (law on fixed-term academic contracts) is to be fundamentally reformed.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The Greens want more permanent jobs at universities. Pay should be fair. Women should be equally represented at every level.

The platform follows the Bremen model and plans more permanent mid-level academic positions, fair pay, and reliable career paths. Structures are to be designed so that women in academia are visible and equally represented at every career stage. At the federal level, the party wants to push for a fundamental reform of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, which governs fixed-term contracts in academia.

The Greens want findings from universities to reach society and business more effectively. Every university is to get an innovation hub, and transfer is to be guided by the sustainable development goals.

Knowledge from universities should help everyone. The Greens want an innovation hub at every university. This is a place where researchers and companies meet. People get help there with starting a company.

The hubs are meant to connect researchers with businesses and help with start-ups and patent filings. Science communication is to be expanded, internationalization advanced, and the freedom of research and teaching defended. The party wants to support the further development of doctoral clusters at universities of applied sciences. AI research is to focus more on environmental questions. The platform sees the humanities and social sciences as necessary for democracy, cohesion, and cultural diversity.

The Greens want to increase the number of places to study medicine by extending models such as the medical campuses in Trier and Koblenz to other locations. The platform argues that good health care starts with good training.

The Greens want more places to study medicine. Trier and Koblenz already have such programs. More towns should follow. Training for nursing should also matter more.

The party wants to support the restructuring of the state's only university medical center. The medical campuses in Trier and Koblenz serve as a model for additional sites. Nursing science and health professions are also to be a particular focus.

The Greens want to create enough daycare places and recruit more skilled staff, in part through paid on-the-job training. They also plan an inclusion budget for daycare centers, better working conditions and a mandatory language assessment before children start school.

The Greens want more daycare places. There should be more daycare teachers. Their training should be well paid. All children should take a language test before school. Children with disabilities should be able to take part in daycare.

Staff are also to be recruited by recognizing foreign qualifications and through further training. The plan includes fair pay, more time for running a center and for training apprentices, and a better staff-to-child ratio; mergers among providers are supported. An inclusion budget is meant to secure participation for children with disabilities. Family centers and daycare social work are to grow, and nature as a place of learning is to feature in every daycare center and school. For the move to elementary school, the party wants a mandatory language assessment of all preschool children and more language coordinators and offerings funded by the social-area budget. For all children it aims for a free lunch that is healthy and regionally sourced.

The Greens want to give all-day schools more money and staff and expand them at elementary schools across the state. All-day classes are to become the norm so that lessons, exercise and free time can be spread over the day.

The Greens want more all-day schools. Children stay there in the afternoon too. There should be music, sports, nature and art. Whole classes should spend the day at school together. Schools get more money and staff for this.

All-day schooling is to include music, exercise, nature, sports and art, built on partnerships and on children having a say. The plan calls for well-trained and well-paid staff, learning sites outside school and more support for language and social skills. At elementary schools the offering is to grow close to home and according to need. In the long run every school district is to have an all-day school as a voluntary option. Schools with all-day classes are to set their own daily rhythm.

The Greens call for a state program to renovate contaminated classrooms and sanitary facilities at schools. School buildings are also to become accessible and better protected against heat.

Many school buildings are in bad shape. The Greens want a program to fix them. Rooms with harmful substances and toilets should be renewed. Schools should get protection from heat. Everyone should be able to get in without barriers.

Because heat waves are becoming more frequent, all learning spaces are to get temperature-control measures such as sun shading. The renovation is also meant to create quiet retreat areas and green schoolyards. All school buildings are to become accessible. Hygiene and menstrual products are to be available free of charge in school restrooms.

The Greens want all teachers in the state, including elementary school teachers, to start at pay grade A13 or E13. Teachers are to have less administrative work, teacher training is to become more hands-on, and curricula are to be slimmed down.

Elementary school teachers should earn as much as teachers at other schools. Teachers should have less office work. More social workers and psychologists should help at schools. Curricula should be shorter. Schools should decide more for themselves.

Multi-professional teams, school social work and the school psychology service are to grow, guided by social indicators of the school's area. A stage-based teaching degree is to link university study and classroom practice more closely. Curricula are to focus on content relevant for the future; instead of homework and 45-minute periods, the plan calls for study periods and regular feedback on skills gained. Schools get more autonomy over organization, staffing and finances. The private schools act is to be revised while keeping schooling free of tuition.

The Greens want joint classes for children with and without disabilities, and with and without a migration background, to become the norm. They favor longer shared learning over early tracking, far more Integrierte Gesamtschulen (comprehensive schools) and a free school lunch.

All children should learn together. That includes children with disabilities. The Greens want no more repeating a grade. There should be many more comprehensive schools. No child should leave school without a diploma. School lunch should be free.

Inclusive schools are to get better conditions and resources, including learning assistants who support whole classes and individual children; in the long run all schools are to work inclusively. Budgets based on the social situation of a school's area and socially mixed classes are meant to keep background from deciding educational chances. For students, the party aims for a free lunch that is healthy and regionally sourced. When a diploma is at risk, extra support lessons are to help early. Educational pathways are to be tracked better, and young people supported beyond compulsory schooling into the job market.

The Greens want to expand democracy and civic education from daycare through adult education and give students more of a say. The party rejects recruitment efforts by the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) at schools and wants to act firmly against far-right incidents.

Children and young people should learn more about democracy. This should start in daycare. Students should have more say at school. Every student should visit a memorial site. The army should not recruit at schools.

The platform treats education for sustainable development as a topic for all areas of education. Teacher training is to include civic education elements, and further training on it is to grow. Out-of-school providers and the state agency for civic education are to be strengthened and cooperate more with schools and universities. Student councils and their networks at every level are to be supported, and school decisions made more democratic. Every student is to visit a memorial site and a site of democracy at least once. The party wants to back teachers who are attacked by right-wing radicals.

The Greens want well-equipped vocational schools and inter-company training centers and want all schools to be able to hold practical days. They also plan pilot projects for a dual upper secondary track, a voluntary service year after ninth grade with a right to return, and a right to attend school up to age 25.

The Greens want to strengthen job training. Students should have regular hands-on days. In trials, young people should earn a diploma and a trade certificate together. Teens should be able to do a volunteer year after grade 9. Then they can come back to school. Everyone should be allowed to go to school until 25.

Modern training frameworks are to be developed with companies and chambers; inter-company training is secured and training companies get support. Practical days are to anchor career orientation in school life. Pilot projects for the dual upper secondary track follow models from other states. After nine years of school, a voluntary service in various nonprofit fields is to be possible, followed by a return to school. The right to school until 25 is meant to give prospects to young refugees and to people delayed by illness as well.

The Greens see public-interest continuing education as part of essential public services and plan a new state law for it. The law is meant to make continuing education accessible in cities and rural areas, online and in person, regardless of income.

Adults should be able to learn all their lives. The Greens plan a new law for this. There should be courses in cities and in the countryside. Online too. Having little money should not be a barrier.

The platform names reliable funding, qualified instructors with ongoing training and fair fees as the foundation. Continuing education should not be judged by job value alone; it covers things like learning to read, catching up on school diplomas and career development. The plan is also justified by the shortage of skilled workers. These courses are to remain exempt from sales tax.