Grüne on education

The Greens want to strengthen democracy education starting in daycare. Civics is to be compulsory from fifth grade until graduation, and school conferences are to be composed on a one-third parity basis.

The Greens want children to learn about democracy early. Civics should be required from grade 5 until the end of school. Students should have more say at school. All students should be able to join exchange programs.

Civics is to be taught as a required subject from fifth grade through twelfth or thirteenth grade. Students are to get binding participation rights; school conferences are to follow one-third parity, meaning equal shares of seats. The platform names school budgets as a way to practice democratic skills in everyday life. Exchange programs and international youth meetings are to be expanded and should not depend on family income.

The Greens want digital and media skills to become a permanent part of education for children and adults alike. People should understand how algorithms and AI shape information.

The Greens want everyone to learn how to use digital media. This applies to schools and to courses for adults. People should understand how news on the internet is made. This should also help them find jobs.

The program names schools, family education centers, youth services and adult education as places of learning. According to the Greens, many adults lack basic digital skills. Beyond using devices and online services, teaching should cover AI, data security and digital communication. This is meant to ease daily life and improve job prospects.

The Greens want to keep every Kita (daycare center) in the state open, especially in rural areas. A program called "HeimatKita" would guarantee childcare in the same village or no more than 15 minutes away. The fee reduction for families with several children would be made permanent.

The Greens want to keep all daycare centers in the state. This matters most in villages. Every family should have daycare nearby or within 15 minutes. Families with several children should keep paying less.

The state would pay for long-term daycare planning by municipalities. Under "HeimatKita", even very small centers would get money, staff and organizational help from the state. Depending on local conditions, childminders, multi-generation services or multi-purpose village centers could also be used. The state would also draw up a model for scaling daycare fees by social situation.

The Greens want to improve staffing in daycare centers for the long term by raising the minimum staff-to-child ratio. In addition, all daycare centers would have to assess children's language skills so that support starts early.

The Greens want more staff in daycare centers. Childcare workers should earn more. All daycare centers should check how well children speak. That way children get help with language early.

The "Kita STABIL" program, which runs until 2028, would be turned into a permanent solution. Plans include more special funding for centers with particular needs, more social work in daycare, better pay and less paperwork for childcare workers. Trainees in their recognition year would be paid adequately at every provider. The "Bildung elementar" education program would be pursued with further training and a pool of experts.

The Greens want daycare centers to be places where children experience participation, and to expand them into family centers. Training is meant to promote gender-neutral upbringing and reduce role stereotypes.

Children should learn to have a say already in daycare. Daycare centers should also be meeting places for families. Staff should get training. There they learn not to push girls and boys into fixed roles.

Well-staffed advisory services would promote participation concepts in daycare, and good examples would receive a daycare democracy award. The platform also sees this as prevention against later radicalization. Child and family centers would be expanded further and linked with family education. Work with parents would be counted firmly into the staffing ratio.

The Greens want to preserve small elementary schools in rural areas and create a special "village elementary school" status for them. Falling student numbers would be used for smaller classes, and the party rejects laying off teaching staff.

The Greens want to keep small elementary schools in villages. Children should have short trips to school. When there are fewer children, classes should get smaller. Teachers should not lose their jobs.

For village schools, models with mixed-grade learning, digital support and mixed professional teams would be tested. Municipalities would also be allowed to use school buildings after class and on weekends as meeting places for everyone. Capacity that becomes free would go into closer supervision and higher quality of education.

The Greens want to turn all general-education schools into schools with all-day programs. Learning materials, a healthy lunch and menstrual products would be free of charge at school.

All schools should have afternoon programs. Clubs and music schools should take part. School books and lunch should be free. Pads and tampons should also be free at school.

Adult education centers, music schools, sports clubs and volunteers would be brought into all-day programs so that culture and sports are free or cheap wherever possible. All secondary schools would have to offer both career and university guidance. Schools would inform families about subsidies for class trips and help with applications.

The Greens want children with and without disabilities to learn together as a rule and to sharply reduce the number of special-needs schools. As a first step, special schools focused on learning difficulties would be abolished entirely. In the platform's view, separation leads to stigma and poorer prospects.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. There should be far fewer special schools. First, the special schools for learning difficulties should go. Their teachers should then help at regular schools.

Teachers from the closed special schools would support joint classes at regular schools. Children with support needs would get trained school aides for the entire school day and also in after-school care. Integration assistance benefits would be granted as a rule when needed. For the remaining special schools, the reservation clause in the school law would be deleted so parents can choose joint classes.

The Greens want to extend joint elementary school to six years and, in the long run, allow joint learning from grade 1 through 10. The Sekundarschule (a non-academic secondary school type) would be abolished, leaving mainly comprehensive Gemeinschaftsschulen alongside Gymnasien. The Abitur would again be taken after 13 years.

Children should attend elementary school together until grade 6. Later they should be able to learn together until grade 10. One type of secondary school should be ended. There should be more comprehensive schools instead. The final school exam should again come after 13 years.

Converting Sekundarschulen into Gemeinschaftsschulen and founding new ones would be supported, and every Gemeinschaftsschule would have an upper level leading to the Abitur. The flexible school entry phase, where children learn in mixed-age groups for two to three years, would be strengthened. Advanced courses in the humanities would be introduced in the upper grades. The platform justifies this with the growing role of artificial intelligence and with fake news.

The Greens want far fewer grades and to replace them with dialogue-based feedback. In elective and talent-based subjects, grades would be dropped entirely. Repeating a school year would mostly become a voluntary decision by students and parents.

There should be far fewer grades at school. Teachers should talk with children about their learning instead. Some subjects should have no grades at all. Repeating a year should mostly be voluntary.

In the platform's view, grades capture complex achievements only to a limited extent and are interpreted differently. Schools would therefore rely more on additional feedback that describes each child's strengths and support needs more precisely. At the same time, performance pressure and mental strain in everyday school life would be reduced.

The Greens want to ease teachers' workload with a mandatory working-time account and teams drawn from several professions. Career changers would get more support, and there would be pay bonuses for teaching in structurally weak regions or shortage subjects.

Teachers should get more help. Other professionals should take tasks off their hands. People from other jobs should become teachers more easily. Those who teach in difficult places should get more money.

Social workers, IT specialists, school psychologists and administrative staff would take on tasks, and teachers would get professional supervision. Career changers would be trained on the job, including with only one subject, and paid equally after qualifying. The bonuses would apply for at least five years, also at heavily burdened school types. Schools would get more flexible teaching models and their own budget managed by the principal.

The Greens want to replace teacher training split by school type with a single degree for all secondary schools. They also plan a new primary-level teaching degree, a one-subject teaching degree and more study places in Halle and Magdeburg.

Teacher training should change. Future teachers should be able to work at all secondary schools. In art, music and sports, one subject should be enough. The universities in Halle and Magdeburg should train more teachers.

The primary-level degree would prepare teachers for inclusive learning and children with support needs. The one-subject degree would apply at least to art, music and sports and, according to the platform, also make it easier to hire international teachers. Dual teacher training would be expanded or newly offered at both universities. For the Referendariat (practical training phase), higher pay and closer mentoring by experienced teachers are planned.

The Greens want to put significantly more money into school buildings and equipment through a school construction program. A school social index would steer extra funds to schools facing particular difficulties.

The Greens want to spend much more money on school buildings. Old schools should be renovated. School toilets should be fixed first. Schools with big problems should get more money.

The construction program would enable renovations and inclusive learning spaces. As an immediate measure, a "school toilet offensive" is planned for all schools. The social index would favor schools in low-income or rural areas, for example. Further plans include more money for inclusion, fair and transparent funding of independent schools, and school secretaries at every school.

The Greens want at least one permanently employed school social worker at every school and a pool of school psychologists in counties and independent cities. Funding would be carried permanently by the state and municipalities together.

Every school should have at least one permanent social worker. Every county should have school psychologists. The state and local governments should pay for this together. Poor municipalities should get help with it.

To this end, the "Startchancen" program would be expanded. Mobile youth work would also grow strongly. Additional staff would link schools and youth welfare services more closely to prevent dropouts, and the rules on suspending students would be relaxed. An emergency fund would allow indebted counties to pay their share.

The Greens want to set up a state action program against bullying. The platform argues that perpetrator and victim roles are often carried over from school into working life, so early intervention is needed.

The Greens want a program against bullying. Bullying means someone is treated badly again and again. Schools should act against it early. Once a year there should be a day against bullying.

A cooperative school climate would be written into the school law, covered in teacher studies and training, and taught in social studies classes. Action days and weeks as well as ongoing concept work in daycare centers, schools and companies would be supported. An annual anti-bullying day would make the program visible. It would be developed with health insurers, the state prevention council, the state student council and the unions.

The Greens want to supply all schools with fast internet, Wi-Fi, digital boards and enough devices. IT and digital assistants at every school would provide technical help. According to the platform, digitalization should not be an end in itself but follow teaching concepts.

All schools should get fast internet and Wi-Fi. There should be enough devices for children and teachers. Experts at every school should help with the technology. Teachers should learn better how to work with digital media.

The existing digital assistance unit at the state institute for school quality and teacher training would take on this support as its main task and be made permanent. Teachers would receive better initial and further training. Digital learning offers would complement lessons and be placed on an equal footing with conventional methods. The platform links this to equal learning opportunities regardless of family background.

The Greens want to better protect children in all schools from discrimination, bullying, racism and anti-queer hostility. They plan to strengthen counseling and prevention, set up an independent statewide ombuds office, and require regular teacher training.

The Greens want to protect children at school. This is about bullying, racism and hate against queer people. There should be an independent office for complaints. People can report incidents there without giving their name. Teachers should take regular courses on this.

Counseling services and prevention programs are to be strengthened, along with networks such as "Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage" (School without Racism – School with Courage). An independent statewide ombuds office would handle discrimination and verbal or physical assaults. Students, parents and teachers could report incidents and get advice there, anonymously if they wish. The platform also calls for mandatory, regular teacher training on discrimination so that staff are aware of the issue and know how to respond.

The Greens want students to have more say at every level of school life. Democracy education would become a guiding principle across all subjects, new bodies would be created, and the school conference would be split equally among three groups.

Students should have more say at school. The Greens want new groups for this, such as class councils. In the school conference, students, parents and teachers should have equal weight. This way young people experience democracy early.

Democracy education is to play a role in every subject so that students actively help shape what is taught. In addition to existing student councils, the platform calls for class councils and student parliaments. One-third parity would be introduced in the school conference. Students, parents, and teachers together with school leadership would then have equal weight in decisions.

The Greens want no vocational training program to charge school fees, especially school-based training and health professions. They also call for training pay tied to collective agreements and a one-time start-up grant for trainees whose parents cannot support them financially.

Some training programs cost school fees today. The Greens want to end that. This is most important for health jobs. Trainees should get pay based on union agreements. Trainees who get no money from their parents should get a one-time payment at the start.

The platform argues that access to education should not depend on income. Training pay is to be tied to collective agreements. The planned start-up grant is modeled on the federal Studienstarthilfe (start-up aid for students) and is meant to help with costs such as moving, a rental deposit, a laptop and books. It is aimed at young people whose families cannot help them financially.

The Greens want to strengthen adult education centers and independent providers and make continuing education accessible in rural areas too. A new educational leave law would broaden Bildungsurlaub (paid educational leave), and programs for basic skills, second-chance schooling and German courses would grow.

Adults should be able to learn close to home. The Greens want to strengthen adult education centers. There should be more courses for reading and writing. Educational leave should get easier. That is time off work for learning. Immigrants should get more German courses.

In rural regions, programs would be expanded and supplemented with digital and hybrid formats. The new law would also recognize political and cultural education and education for sustainable development as educational leave. Employers would receive a flat payment to offset continued wages, and a hardship fund could cover course fees. Evening schools and online options are meant to let adults complete school diplomas later in life. According to the platform, German courses, including ones alongside work, would ease entry into the labor market and help counter the skilled-worker shortage.

The Greens want to keep raising state funding for universities so that at least inflation and higher energy and construction costs are covered. They also pledge to defend academic freedom and university autonomy and to support research in future-oriented fields.

Universities should get more money from the state. This should help them pay higher prices for energy and building. The Greens want to protect the freedom of science. They want to support research, for example on green hydrogen.

Federal money from the Zukunftsvertrag Studium und Lehre (a federal-state funding pact for teaching) is to be passed on to universities in full. The platform sees science as increasingly under political attack and wants universities to remain a safe place for students and researchers from home and abroad. Research on green hydrogen, the bioeconomy and the circular economy would be supported. The Greens also plan investments in high-performance research computing centers, plus real-world labs and test sites where science, business and civil society work on structural change.

The Greens want to give students more of a say, including through a student vice-rector and equal representation of four groups on governing bodies. Universities would also be required to ensure physical and digital accessibility and to offer more part-time and distance study.

Students should have more say at universities. The Greens want a new student post in university leadership. Universities should be open to everyone. This applies to buildings and to digital services. There should be more part-time and distance study.

The student vice-rector would act as a link between the rector's office and students. In academic self-governance, the platform aims for a balanced model in which the four status groups are equally represented. Hearing rights for student representatives would be written into law, and the statewide conference of student councils could become a public corporation. Flexible study formats are meant to help people with family duties, disabilities or jobs.

The Greens want more permanent positions at universities, especially for mid-level academic staff, and a collective agreement for student employees. The share of women is to rise markedly, with a target of at least 40 percent women professors.

Many people at universities only have short contracts. The Greens want more permanent jobs. Students who work at a university should get a union contract. At least 40 percent of professors should be women. There should be binding targets for this.

The TV-Stud collective agreement is meant to guarantee fair pay, minimum contract lengths and co-determination rights. The tenure-track program would be expanded, and at the federal level the Greens call for reform of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (the law governing fixed-term academic contracts). In the long run they plan more permanent posts below professor level and department structures. Binding target quotas, equality monitoring, mentoring and programs for women professors are meant to raise the share of women, including in STEM. Teaching and research funding in gender studies would be secured permanently, and the platform calls equal opportunity officers indispensable.