Grüne on education

The Greens want a phased plan to ensure that by 2035 each daycare professional is responsible for fewer children. This is meant to support children better and ease the load on staff. Where the number of children falls, staff should be kept on anyway.

Daycare centers should have more staff per child. The Greens want to reach this step by step by 2035. Staff should get more time to prepare. If there are fewer children, the staff should stay.

Interim steps named in the platform include more preparation and follow-up time, fuller accounting for absences due to vacation, illness and training, and routinely counting time spent mentoring trainees. The so-called demographic dividend is to become an "educational plus" by retaining staff who would be surplus on paper. In the medium term, the many partial staffing formulas should be merged into one overall formula per type of facility, with only the management share shown separately. The Greens also push for nationwide quality standards and want federal funds from the Kita-Qualitätsgesetz (daycare quality act) to keep going toward quality.

The Greens want to secure and expand social work in daycare centers permanently, even after current EU funding ends. Language learning embedded in everyday daycare routines should be rolled out statewide. Inclusive daycare centers should get more space, staff and money.

Daycare centers should have social workers for the long term. Right now an EU program pays for this. Children should learn language better during the daycare day. Children with and without disabilities should be cared for well together.

Funding should take account of particular burdens on facilities, such as high poverty in the neighborhood, children with traumatic refugee experiences or children with little German. The state program for language education integrated into daily routines is to be firmly established. Training for early childhood educators should give more room to diagnostic skills and multilingualism. The Kita-Integrationsverordnung (daycare integration ordinance) is to be reviewed. The Saxon education plan should become more up to date and practical, with broad involvement of daycare providers.

The Greens want to change the rules on who may work in a daycare center. In the future, skills and qualifications should count, not only formal degrees. Professions such as speech therapy or occupational therapy should be a regular part of the team and count toward the staffing ratio.

Daycare centers lack skilled staff. The Greens want more kinds of professionals to work there. These include speech therapists and drama teachers. Skills should matter more than the diploma alone.

To do this, Saxony's ordinance on the qualification and training of educational staff (SächsQualiVO) is to be rewritten. Monitoring of staffing needs will continue, and the staffing strategy will be updated in line with the phased plan through 2035. Training places at vocational schools and universities should stay at a high level. Also planned are permanent part-time training alongside work, easier recognition of foreign qualifications, and more men and university graduates in the field. In the longer term, trainee social assistants should also no longer pay school fees.

The Greens see the teacher shortage as the biggest challenge in education policy. They want to attract and keep more teachers through better working conditions, part-time options and a new working-time model. School buildings should be energy-efficient, digitally equipped and suited to modern teaching.

Saxony does not have enough teachers. The Greens want to make the job more attractive. Teachers should find it easier to work part-time. Schools should have good buildings, good furniture and good technology.

Homeroom teachers should soon get one hour of teaching relief, and class sizes should shrink in the long run. A publicly available analysis of teacher demand is to be updated regularly. Extra duties should be paid appropriately, and school leadership should consist of teams with educational and business management staff. Foreign teaching degrees should be recognized without red tape, accompanied by training and language courses. Schools should have solar panels on their roofs and open their yards and sports facilities to the neighborhood.

The Greens want every school in Saxony to have at least one school assistant by 2030. The state budget should provide dedicated positions for this. Other professionals such as school psychologists and inclusion assistants are meant to ease the load on teachers.

Teachers should get help in daily school life. By 2030, every school should have at least one assistant. The state should create separate jobs for this. There should also be more school psychologists.

Larger schools and those that go a long time without a principal should receive school administration assistants. The new staff should no longer be booked against unfilled teaching positions. Career advisors, inclusion assistants and school psychologists are to form multi-professional teams with teachers. School psychology counseling should get more positions and work more closely with school social work.

The Greens want a teacher education act for Saxony. Degree programs should be organized by the age of the students taught rather than by school type and include earlier and more frequent practical phases. Career changers should find it easier to enter teaching, and certain in-service training would become mandatory.

The Greens want to change how teachers are trained. There should be a new law for this. Student teachers should practice in schools earlier. People from other jobs should find it easier to become teachers.

Teaching degree programs should allow an integrated bachelor's degree and be available part-time at all universities. Required modules on inclusion and media literacy, plus more mentoring, are meant to lower dropout rates. Existing pilot programs, such as the one at Leipzig University, should be made permanent until the new law passes; in rural areas, the practical training phase should also be offered for Oberschule and Gymnasium teachers. New teachers should get easier access to part-time contracts, and substitute staff in the Unterrichtsversorgung (teaching cover) program should be paid considerably more. Training on digitalization and democracy education should become compulsory.

The Greens want to make it easier to set up a Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) or Oberschule+, so that children learn together for longer. Above all, the minimum number of parallel classes required should be lowered. They also advocate compulsory all-day schools funded through multi-year lump sums.

In comprehensive schools, children learn together for longer. The Greens want such schools to be easier to set up. The rules for this should be less strict. There should also be more all-day schools.

The school act and school regulations are to be changed, drawing on the experience of the first newly founded comprehensive schools. All-day schools should alternate learning and breaks throughout the day and receive money for several years rather than per school year. Elementary schools and after-school care centers should cooperate closely because of the legal right to all-day care. Outside providers and learning sites beyond school should be included.

The Greens want a statewide social index to direct money and staff to schools facing particular challenges. Schools should also have more say over their own budgets. Inclusive schooling close to home should be guaranteed for all types of special educational needs.

Some schools have a harder time than others. The Greens want to give these schools more help. A social index should show which schools they are. Schools should also decide more about their own money.

The social index is meant to allocate resources based on data and make decisions more transparent, for example when selecting schools for the Startchancen program. Schools under particular strain should come first when assistance and support services are expanded. More schools should receive money as a budget for unfilled teaching positions. The family school center program is to be extended to more elementary and special schools, including in rural areas. Municipalities should be involved through their own education monitoring, and the cooperation networks for inclusion should be made permanent.

The Greens want to give schools that practice inclusion lump-sum funding that the schools can spend as they see fit. The platform argues that the current tools are not enough to make inclusion work.

Inclusion means children with and without disabilities learn together. The Greens want to give these schools more money. The schools decide how to use it. They can pay for rooms or for more staff.

Inclusive schools would receive lump-sum allocations to spend on space or staff as local needs require. The platform considers weighting factors for class sizes and a few integration hours insufficient. Gymnasien (academic-track secondary schools) would also be opened to teaching based on individual learning goals. Students who successfully complete special schools focused on learning or intellectual development would be awarded the Hauptschule (basic secondary) certificate.

The Greens want newly arrived children and teenagers to get a school place quickly and want to strengthen German as a second language. The platform explicitly describes diversity in schools as a benefit.

Some children are new in Saxony and speak little German. The Greens want to give them a school place quickly. There should be more German lessons for them. This needs more teachers.

The three-stage integration model in schools would stay in place. Families would get multilingual information about the Saxon school system. Heritage-language classes would be expanded where needed, and multilingualism would be valued more as a skill. More teachers for German as a second language (DaZ) would be recruited, including from abroad, and teachers of all subjects would get flexible training options.

The Greens want to stabilize the school network so that education does not depend on where a child lives. Where enrollment falls, the Oberschule+ model would keep sites open, and digital teaching would fill gaps.

There are fewer schools in rural areas than before. The Greens want to keep these schools. Where teachers are missing, there should be more lessons by computer. Schools should work together on this.

The platform sees the Oberschule+ (a secondary school with longer joint learning) as a way to keep sites open when student numbers fall. Digital and hybrid learning would be expanded where many lessons are already canceled. It would also be used where too few students sign up for an advanced course or a foreign language. The party backs cooperation between schools for this purpose.

The Greens want more young people to finish school with a certificate and plan to expand special learning programs for that. These are meant for students who are disengaged, skip school or struggle with mental strain.

Some young people no longer like school or stop going. The Greens want to help them with special learning programs. They should still get a school certificate. Nobody should use these programs to avoid compulsory school.

Access to existing programs would be made easier, and programs such as 'produktives Lernen' (practice-based learning) would grow. The party wants to prevent such programs from being used to dodge compulsory schooling for political or religious reasons. Health impairments would get more consideration, for example through state-run online schools. Teaching in a regular class would keep priority wherever possible.

The Greens want lessons at all schools in Saxony to start later and at staggered times. Health education would also get more room in the curricula.

School should start later in the morning. The Greens say this is good for health and for enjoying learning. Students should also learn more about health. For example about stress, drugs and illnesses.

The later start is justified by students' health and enjoyment of learning. Curricula at secondary schools would cover prevention more, such as depression, suicide, drug abuse, diabetes, stress, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The platform sees unequal health education as a cause of differences in people's health. Programs supporting physical and mental health in schools would be added.

The Greens want independently run schools to benefit from state programs just as public schools do. The reduction applied to their staffing subsidies would be dropped.

Some schools are not run by the state. They are called independent schools. The Greens want them to get equal support. A cut in the money for their teachers should end.

Independent schools would be included equally in state programs and funding guidelines. A reduction factor currently lowers the subsidies for their staff costs. Removing it is meant to offset recruiting disadvantages that, according to the platform, arose when public school teachers were given civil-servant status. The party points to a court review it initiated and the legal reform that followed.

The Greens want to maintain and expand the Sorbian daycare and school network to strengthen the Sorbs' language and culture. An action plan is meant to tackle the teacher shortage, which the platform calls an existential problem.

The Sorbs are a minority in Saxony with their own language. The Greens want to keep Sorbian daycare centers and schools. More teachers who speak Sorbian should come. Adults should also be able to learn Sorbian.

The Witaj project and the Sorbian daycare and school network would be secured and expanded, with more posts for Sorbian-speaking educators and teachers. Incentives for learning Sorbian, such as bonuses or extra vacation days, are mentioned. Qualifications of foreign teachers, for example from the Czech Republic, would be recognized faster, and Sorbian skills could take priority over high German-language requirements for admission. The Sorbian contribution to Saxony's history would also be taught in non-Sorbian institutions, and language courses outside school would grow.

The Greens want leaner framework curricula that center on skills rather than reproducing knowledge. The results of the participation process 'Bildungsland Sachsen 2030' should actually be put to use for this.

The Greens want shorter curricula. Students should mainly learn skills and not just repeat facts. Reading, writing and math should get stronger. Lessons should relate more to everyday life.

In the platform's view, school should prepare young people for an increasingly complex world. Teaching, learning and exams would be closely tied to students' real lives. The party cites matching positions of the state student council and the state parents' council. 'Bildungsland 2030' would be followed by ongoing and deeper participation processes.

The Greens want civic education to be a cross-subject part of school life and want students more involved in decisions. For the party this also means schools taking a stand against discrimination.

Students should have more say at school. For example in projects or the design of the schoolyard. This way they experience democracy themselves. Schools should also stand up against unfair treatment of people.

Class councils would be set up in all school types and grades, and projects such as FREI DAY are supported. Student representation would also be strengthened at the state level. The networks 'Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage' and 'Schule der Vielfalt' would be expanded. The ombuds office against discrimination in schools would be secured and made better known.

The Greens want education for sustainable development (BNE) and global learning included in every curriculum and in the training of all teaching professions. The platform treats knowledge about environmental and climate protection as a foundation of education, along with support for STEM subjects.

Students should learn more about the environment, climate and sustainability. Sustainability means living so that there is enough for everyone later too. The topic should appear in all subjects. Math, technology and science should also get support.

The state strategy on BNE would continue to be implemented. The small-projects fund, the network of service offices and the guide program would be continued and expanded. The concept is also meant to shape practical decisions in schools and other institutions. The platform justifies STEM support with the need for tradespeople, engineers and scientists for the economic and ecological transition.

The Greens want to anchor cultural education more firmly in schools and strengthen arts subjects. School exchanges, education about Europe and learning Czech and Polish would also be supported.

Students should learn more about art, music and culture. A new statewide office should bring everyone involved together. The Greens also want more school exchanges with neighboring countries. Students should be able to learn Czech and Polish.

Teachers and cultural practitioners would receive training, and the link to curricula would be strengthened. A statewide coordination office would connect those involved, including for all-day school programs. Whole-class exchanges would be funded, and for individual exchanges, schoolwork done abroad would be recognized more easily. The platform calls exchange with neighbors essential for a united Europe.

The Greens want all schools connected to broadband by 2025 and will push at the federal level for a DigitalPakt 2.0. Municipalities would continue to get state help to renovate and build schools.

All schools should have fast internet by 2025. The federal government should pay for devices, tech support and teacher training. Students should learn to handle media and AI well. The state should help towns and cities build schools.

The DigitalPakt 2.0 (a federal school digitization program) would cover IT administration and teacher training in addition to equipment and devices. The media education centers would get more staff, and the coordination office for media education would be strengthened. Handling data and AI tools such as chatbots would be promoted as key skills. For school buildings, the party wants incentives for designs that support inclusion and individual learning, and funding for multi-use buildings as well.

The Greens want to cut significantly the number of students leaving school without a certificate and call for transition management and a training guarantee. Career guidance would rank equally with university guidance at all secondary schools.

Fewer young people should leave school without a certificate. The Greens want a training guarantee. That means every young person should be able to get a training place. Schools should give better information about jobs.

Companies, chambers, universities, job centers and employment agencies would present occupations in schools and run hands-on days. Skilled trades and care professions would be given more standing; apprentice service organizations modeled on student services, and student-run companies, would be supported. People who finished compulsory schooling without a certificate could earn one during or through work, at evening schools or in production schools. Social benefits would cushion transition phases, with special attention to language barriers for people with migration or refugee backgrounds.

The Greens want a law giving employees in Saxony time off for education and back the citizens' petition for five education days. Continuing education would grow across the board, from job-related courses to basic education.

Workers should get time off to learn something. The Greens want a new law for this. There should be more courses for adults. People should also get help with phones and the internet.

A cross-ministry strategy would cover all areas of continuing education, aiming at basic provision everywhere and a wide range of providers. Planned are drop-in help sessions on digital matters in neighborhood centers, churches and libraries, plus pilot projects with media educators. Second-chance school certificates, literacy programs and basic education centers would be supported, and informally acquired knowledge recognized more easily. Environmental education would be anchored in daycare, schools and adult programs, with long-term funding for environmental education centers.

The Greens want to keep student numbers at today's level over the long term to meet the demand for skilled workers. University study should be possible at every stage of life and be inclusive and accessible.

As many people as today should keep studying in Saxony. Part-time study should be possible. People with disabilities should be able to study without barriers. Students in dual programs should get more pay.

Part-time programs and individually adjusted study plans would be made possible. Compensation for disadvantages, accessible buildings and materials, and digital and hybrid teaching are meant to ensure participation. The range of universities and disciplines would be preserved. Training in health professions at the Duale Hochschule (cooperative state university) would be examined, and pay there would at least match the statutory minimum training allowance.

The Greens want to bring more students and researchers from abroad to Saxony and keep them there. According to the platform, the state's prosperity cannot be secured unless international skilled workers stay permanently.

More people from other countries should study and do research in Saxony. They should also stay in Saxony afterward. There should be good advice in one place. Universities should work more with neighboring countries.

The plan includes easy-access, culturally sensitive advice and one-stop offices in the administration, from application to enrollment or hiring. Programs to host at-risk scholars are supported. Joint degree programs and research with neighboring regions and exchange programs would be funded. A cross-border university agency serving all universities would be examined.

The Greens want to scrap fees for long-term students because, in the platform's view, they harm academic success. Student services, affordable housing and cafeterias would be secured.

People who study for a very long time pay fees today. The Greens want to end these fees. There should be more cheap dorm places. Students should be able to apply for BAföG easily online.

Tutorials, individual counseling and cooperation with education advisers are meant to prevent dropouts. Student services organizations would be funded so that rising prices are not passed on to students; BAföG (federal student aid) applications would be simple and fully digital. The 'Junges Wohnen' housing program would be made permanent with state co-financing, adding dorm places especially in large cities. Cafeterias would offer healthy, regional and affordable food, and low-cost support for students' long-distance travel is planned.

The Greens want to clear the renovation backlog in university buildings with an overall plan guided by sustainability and inclusion. Universities would get support on their path to climate neutrality.

Many university buildings are old and need repairs. The Greens want one big plan for this. The buildings should be good for the climate and free of barriers. Universities should get their own climate experts.

The renovation is meant to lower follow-up costs and keep teaching and research attractive. Climate neutrality, resource protection, energy efficiency and sustainability in curricula and research would be promoted through updated incentives and more clearly defined duties. Climate protection managers at universities would bundle all measures together with the vice-rectors in charge. Shared use of infrastructure by several universities would be advanced.

The Greens want the democratically elected bodies of universities to decide on their internal affairs. Senates and faculty councils are to have equal representation of member groups, and the university council would only advise from outside.

The Greens want more say for people at universities. All groups should have equal weight in key committees. The university council should only give advice. Students who volunteer should get more support.

The platform wants the largest member groups at universities to have a stronger role in decisions, within constitutional limits. The Hochschulrat (university council) would be reduced to a purely external advisory role. The conference of Saxon student bodies would get its own funding for day-to-day work. To support student volunteering in committees, the Greens are considering attendance fees, among other things.

The Greens want to make academic careers more predictable and steadily increase the number of permanent positions below the professorship level. They call for a collective agreement for student employees. They also want more women in professorships and leadership roles.

The Greens want more permanent jobs at universities. Permanent staff should do the tasks that never end. Students who work for the university should get a union contract. More women should become professors.

Tasks that arise permanently at universities should generally be handled by permanent staff; the platform says this requires adequate core funding. The new job categories of lecturers and science managers are to get a clearer profile of their own. Good teaching should count more in appointments, and sabbatical semesters for developing teaching are a goal. Structures that encourage abuse of power are to be removed. Gaps in protection against discrimination are to be closed and the visiting professorship program for women made permanent.

The Greens want research results to be freely accessible and universities to lead on open-source software and open teaching materials. State-funded research institutes are to receive regularly rising budgets. Universities of applied sciences should be able to award doctorates themselves in research-strong fields.

The Greens want open research. Everyone should be able to read and use results. State research institutes should get more money each year. Some universities of applied sciences should be allowed to award doctorates.

Core funding for state institutes is to grow at the rate that the Pact for Innovation and Research sets for institutes funded jointly by the federal and state governments. Rules and incentives for university spin-offs are to be reviewed so that knowledge reaches practice faster and with little red tape. State research funding would get a focus on interdisciplinary projects while continuing strong support for the humanities. Also planned are a permanent professorship in gender studies, real-world labs in all fields and a competition for citizen science. The large research centers in the regions undergoing structural change and university medicine in Dresden and Leipzig are to be supported.

The Greens support Islamic religious education in Saxony's schools, taught by teachers trained in Germany. Imams under Turkish influence would not be admitted to teach it. As a principle, no one should be favored or disadvantaged because of belief or non-belief.

The Greens want Islam classes in Saxony's schools. The teachers should be trained in Germany. Imams influenced by Turkey should not teach there. All people should be free to live their faith.

The platform stresses freedom of religion and wants to promote exchange between religions and cultures. Churches and religious communities should continue to be heard in state politics, including those without public-corporation status. The Greens back calls for the ordination of women and equal access to offices in the Catholic Church. They say dealing with abuse cases is not a purely internal church matter and must include help for victims and removing structures that enabled abuse.

The Greens want to strengthen dual vocational training, especially in the skilled trades, to counter the shortage of skilled workers. The network of vocational schools is to be kept. They are looking into founding Azubi-Werke (apprentice service organizations) modeled on student services.

The Greens want to strengthen training in companies and vocational schools. Vocational schools should stay open. In rural areas, apprentices should get housing and transport options. The Greens are looking into apprentice service organizations. These would work like student services, but for apprentices.

Training should fit the everyday lives of young people and of companies. Career orientation programs are to be expanded together with partners in the training market. The vocational school network is to be strengthened based on the ongoing review of the school network plan. In rural areas, housing, transport and digital learning options are meant to make training more attractive. The Greens also back lifelong learning and further training, supported by childcare and public transit.

The Greens want more young people to complete their vocational training successfully. Young people who are not in school, training or work are to be reached in a targeted way. The youth employment agencies are to keep receiving support.

The Greens want fewer young people to drop out of training. Some young people have no school, no training and no job. There should be special programs for them. Parents should be involved too.

The quality and number of completed training programs are to rise in cooperation with business, schools and public administration. For so-called NEETs, meaning young people not in education, employment or training, the platform names orientation study programs and hands-on career guidance from youth employment services. At the Jugendberufsagenturen (youth employment agencies), work with parents is to be a focus. Multilingual services are to grow. Mentoring programs are meant to open up alternative educational paths.

The Greens want training for the master craftsperson qualification (Meister) to be free of charge, putting it on a par with a first university degree. They also want better career guidance and training conditions in the skilled trades. The platform justifies this with the need for skilled workers, including for the energy transition.

The Greens want master craftsperson training to be free. A first university degree is free too. Both paths should count the same. Training in the skilled trades should also get better.

The platform wants vocational and academic education to be treated equally and names free Meister training as the way to get there. The Greens see the already increased Meisterbonus (a grant for new master craftspeople) as a first step to build on. Funding for inter-company training courses, which are part of dual vocational training in the trades, is to be made permanent. The trades are also to be closely involved in carrying out the energy transition through their self-governing bodies.