Linke on education

The Left wants to found an institute and a degree program for nonprofit housing management. This is meant to train specialists for the public-interest restructuring of the sector that the party is aiming for.

The Left wants to create a new field of study. People learn there how housing companies work without a profit goal. There should also be a new institute. The party says that so far only for-profit real estate is taught.

According to the program, the institute would be the first of its kind in Germany. Current and future employees of state-owned, cooperative and public-interest companies would be trained there. The party argues that universities currently teach only the basics of the profit-oriented real estate industry.

The Left wants to expand the training levy so that companies that train apprentices are reimbursed in full for all of them. The aim is more apprenticeship slots, since the platform says thousands of applicants are left without one each year. The party also backs an Azubi-Werk (apprentice services agency) offering affordable housing.

Many young people in Berlin cannot find an apprenticeship. The Left wants to help companies that train apprentices. These companies should get their costs back. The money comes from a levy. That means all companies pay into a shared fund. Apprentices should also get affordable housing.

In the party's view, the recently adopted levy model covers only a few apprenticeships. Joint training arrangements, in which mainly small and midsize firms team up, would get more funding and support. The state and its own companies would also train more people. Better career guidance in schools, easier internships, tailored placement, and continuous support from school to the start of training are meant to ease the transition, while support services aim to reduce dropouts. The apprentice services agency, modeled on Munich's, stems from an initiative by the youth wing of the trade union federation DGB and would offer counseling and a complaints office in addition to housing.

The Left wants to keep education free of charge from daycare through university and make further services free. It argues that education is part of basic public services and that one in four children in Berlin grows up in poverty.

The Left wants education to cost nothing. This applies from daycare to university. The free transit ticket for students should stay. Older students should also get free lunch and free schoolbooks. After-school care should also be free in fourth grade.

The free transit ticket for all Berlin schoolchildren is to stay. Free after-school care (eFöB, formerly Hort) is to be extended to fourth grade. Free learning materials and free lunch are to be extended to middle and upper grades. Access to after-school care is to remain without a needs test.

The Left wants many more Gemeinschaftsschulen (community schools), where children learn together from first grade through graduation. In the medium term it wants to move beyond the tracked school system. In its view, these schools decouple learning progress from social background.

At a community school, all children learn together. This goes from first grade to graduation. The Left wants many more of these schools. Each district should start at least two new ones by 2031. Later, there should be no separate school types.

The Senate is to steer more actively and require each district to launch at least two new community schools by 2031. New school buildings are to be built preferably as community schools and get priority in the school construction program. Mergers and conversions are to be sped up through binding procedures, and the party wants to encourage Gymnasien (academic-track high schools) to convert. Minimum standards are planned, such as the right to an in-house upper level. Converting schools are to get outside guidance and temporary extra staff, and a long-term study is to accompany the expansion.

The Left wants to train more teachers, ease the load on current staff, and spread trained teachers more evenly across districts and schools. It accuses the Senate of having reduced the teacher shortage only on paper. Cuts made by the CDU-SPD coalition are to be reversed.

Berlin does not have enough teachers. The Left wants to train more of them. They should work less overtime. Their working hours should be recorded exactly. Teachers should be spread more fairly across schools. Degrees from other countries should be recognized more easily.

Smaller classes and the path toward them are to be set by collective agreement or in the school law. The current "casting" hiring process is to be replaced by a central application process in which applicants list preferred schools. Mandatory recording of working hours is to come quickly after a district pilot; the platform cites two million hours of unpaid overtime a year. The suspension of Profilbedarf II (a supplemental staffing allocation) and the higher teaching load for trainee teachers, together 470 full-time positions, are to be reversed, and compensation for teachers who are not civil servants is to return. Recognition of foreign teaching degrees is to be eased, for example hiring with only one subject and a C1 language level in selected subjects. The platform also plans a job-sharing pilot for principals and new career paths for after-school educators.

The Left wants to give schools more staff alongside teachers, such as school assistants, administrative managers, and IT specialists. A dedicated budget is to let schools hire additional professionals such as therapists on permanent contracts themselves. The improvements are to start at schools in difficult circumstances.

Schools should not have only teachers. The Left wants more helpers, IT experts, and office staff. Schools should get their own money for more specialists. These can be speech therapists, for example. Schools with the biggest challenges get this help first.

Teaching aides, care staff, and school assistants are to become part of every school's basic staffing. Every school is to get one full position each for administrative management and IT administration, with more for larger schools. The flexible staffing budget is scaled by school size, classification, and type and is meant to allow hiring of school health staff, occupational and learning therapists, or speech therapists. Both measures are to start at schools with a high need classification and then expand step by step to all schools. All professions working directly with students are to get team hours as working time, workspaces, and seats on school committees. Cleaning staff are to be part of the school community once school cleaning returns to public hands.

The Left wants schools that lack teachers to be allowed to cut lessons in a targeted way instead of having classes canceled at random. Language support and individual support would take priority, because the platform says the shortage currently hits the children who need the most help.

Berlin does not have enough teachers. The Left wants schools to be allowed to shorten their timetable in a planned way. Lessons should no longer be canceled at random. Help for individual children and language help should come first.

The priority for language and individual support would be written into the allocation guidelines, the rules that determine how many teaching hours schools receive. Schools facing a lasting shortage could temporarily reduce their timetable. Subjects and content would be ranked deliberately by importance. Students, educators and parents would be involved, for example through round tables. The party also wants to trim and modernize curricula, which it considers partly outdated and overloaded.

The Left wants schools facing many difficulties to get priority for money and staff. It also plans a pilot project called "Zukunftsschulen" (schools of the future) in which such schools can work with more freedom. The platform argues that Berlin's education system structurally disadvantages many children.

Some schools have a lot of problems. The Left wants to give these schools more money and more staff. There will also be a new project. It is called "Zukunftsschulen", which means schools of the future. These schools can use the curriculum more freely.

The supplementary budget on top of the school budget, formerly the bonus program, would continue. Money from the federal-state Startchancen program should arrive quickly and with little red tape. Improvements in staffing allocation would go to these schools first, and their all-day programs would get more time for indirect pedagogical work. Schools with a very high rating in Berlin's school classification could join the pilot voluntarily and would receive more positions, more funds for school development and academic evaluation. The classification system would be reviewed, and school inspections would be developed further for all schools, with more weight on democracy, inclusion and complaint structures.

The Left wants to expand psychosocial care for children and teenagers by placing psychologists directly in schools. The plan calls for one professional per 800 students.

The Left wants to do more for children's mental health. Schools should have psychologists. One psychologist should be there for 800 children. Children can get help there easily.

The new program would be modeled on the existing one for school social work. The psychologists would be easy to reach and would also support counseling teachers and school projects. Districts would draw up framework plans, and the education, youth and health departments would network at district and state level. School staff would get training, the topic would enter each school's own curriculum, and peer-to-peer programs would grow. Every district should be able to set up a team against school absenteeism based on the Neukölln model.

The Left wants every Berlin school to have at least one school social work position, including upper-secondary vocational centers and newly founded schools. In the longer run, there should be one social worker for every 150 students.

Every school in Berlin should have at least one school social worker. This also applies to new schools. Later there should be even more. Then one social worker should be there for 150 children.

The basic level of one position per school is to be reached everywhere. Together with the provider organizations, the party wants to set binding quality standards for the services. Overhead costs reimbursed to providers would match real costs and be updated regularly. The party will examine creating a municipal provider so that staff can be employed in the public sector while remaining independent.

The Left wants every child to be able to attend an inclusive school close to home, citing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It rejects new or enlarged special-needs schools. Instead, a state plan with fixed goals, deadlines and investment funds is to be drawn up.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. This is called inclusion. The Left does not want to build new special schools. It wants a plan for all of Berlin. The plan should have clear goals and money.

As a bridge, the 36 planned inclusive focus schools would be built, mainly with places for intellectual development and autism; time-limited small classes can help. Hours for support and inclusion would be allocated by need without a cap, granted in full and not used for substitute teaching. The cap on inclusion assistance would go, accommodations in exams would expand, and Gymnasien (academic high schools) would have to open up more. Children with disabilities would get a legal right to transport to school, after-school care and outings, with the state reimbursing the districts. The party also wants more places in alternative school projects for crisis situations.

The Left wants the move to secondary school to depend less on grades. The trial lesson used as an entry test would be dropped, more places would be assigned by lottery, and repeating a year would end at Gymnasien (academic high schools) too. The party says this would ease pressure on children and counter social separation in schools.

After elementary school, children move to a new school. The Left wants to make this move easier. The trial lesson as a test should end. More school places should be given out by lottery. No child should have to repeat a year, even at a Gymnasium.

Recommendations for a school type would again consider strengths beyond math, German and English, and the teachers' conference would have more say. Quotas for hardship cases and siblings stay. Repeating a year voluntarily remains possible where it makes educational sense. All Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive schools) and Integrierte Sekundarschulen would get their own upper level, shared with others if needed. The party stands by the six-year elementary school with fixed catchment areas and wants more comprehensive schools and stronger school networks in the long run.

The Left sees multilingualism as a valuable skill and wants schools to foster it. First-language classes would grow, and Arabic and Kurdish would become available as foreign languages.

Many children in Berlin speak more than one language. The Left thinks this is valuable. Children should get more lessons in their first language at school. Arabic and Kurdish should become new school subjects.

First-language teaching would increase according to demand, especially at secondary schools. The Staatliche Europa-Schule (Berlin's bilingual state school program) would get new sites and languages, mainly in the eastern part of the city. A German-Arabic or German-Kurdish school track will be examined. Language skills that students already have would be easier to get recognized.

The Left wants to strengthen schools in dealing with far-right incidents. It plans funded prevention programs, staff training, guidelines and grants for projects started by students. The party points to what it sees as a rightward shift in society.

The Left wants to help schools deal with the far right. There should be programs for prevention. Teachers should get training. Students should get money for their own projects for democracy.

Programs for prevention and for empowering students are to be adequately funded. Educators would get training and guidelines on how to deal with far-right actors. The party cites Section 1 of the school law and concludes that schools and teachers should stand up to forces hostile to democracy. It promises support to anyone affected by incidents or hostility.

The Left wants to make schools more democratic and give students more say. Student councils would get their own money and defined rights. The party regards the class council as the key tool for this.

Students should have more say at school. Their student councils should get their own money. They should also have clear rights. This applies to elementary schools too. There should be rooms that students run themselves.

Participation projects such as student budgets, where students help decide how money is spent, would be expanded. Places to retreat and self-run spaces without grading, such as school clubs at secondary schools, would be funded. The committees required by law at school, district and state level would get more help with their work. Extended school leadership teams would become mandatory at every school.

The Left wants to strengthen the school subject of civic education and also introduce it in elementary schools from fourth grade and in vocational schools. Out-of-school providers and the state agency for civic education are to be put on a secure long-term footing. According to the platform, the aim is to enable young people to think and act politically for themselves.

The Left wants more civics classes in schools. The subject should start in fourth grade. Vocational schools should also teach it. Groups that offer civic education should get money for longer periods.

Teachers are to receive ongoing training, with a focus on critical media education and dealing with social media. The program "Politische Bildung an Berliner Schulen" (civic education in Berlin schools) is to be strengthened. An adequately funded coordination office is to support cooperation between schools and out-of-school providers. These providers are to gain planning security through longer-term funding. Berlin's state agency for civic education is to become more independent and be secured institutionally and financially.

The Left wants to make media education a binding part of curricula from elementary school on and give all students access to digital devices and the internet for school purposes. Schools are to get their own media officers and IT administrators. On software, the platform favors open source and a cautious approach to artificial intelligence.

Children should learn how to handle media from elementary school on. All students should be able to use a laptop for school. Poor families get the device for free. Every school should get experts for its technology. Computer programs should not give grades.

The platform counts critical use of digital tools, artificial intelligence and data protection, as well as prevention of media addiction, as part of media education. Today's IT officers are to become media officers with fixed hours who only advise on digital school development; maintenance is to be handled by IT administrators at every school, preferably public employees. Devices for young people from low-income families are to be paid for from the DigitalPakt 2.0 (a federal-state school digitalization fund), along with class sets for elementary schools too and free internet for school purposes. The Lernraum Berlin learning platform is to be developed further as open source, and open educational resources (OER) are to be promoted. When AI is used, the platform says no data of students or educators may flow to providers, and grading stays with teachers. Children and young people are to be introduced to open-source solutions and independent platforms in order to reduce dependence on commercial software.

The Left rejects blanket cell phone bans for all grade levels. Each school community is to work out its own rules democratically. As long as no such rule exists, the school day is to be phone-free as a default up to and including ninth grade.

The Left does not want a phone ban for all grades. Each school should decide its own phone rules. Students, parents and teachers decide together. If there is no rule yet, phones stay off through ninth grade.

The platform justifies the default by saying breaks should be time spent together rather than alone in front of a screen. Schools that already have a phone policy may keep it. All others are to develop one and will receive guidelines with practical examples and an additional planning day for that purpose.

The Left wants to replace numerical grades with oral and written feedback through ninth grade at all types of schools and to cut back homework. This is meant to reduce performance pressure and foster students' own motivation. In the platform's view, homework deepens social inequality because not all children have time, quiet and help at home.

The Left wants no number grades through ninth grade. Teachers should say or write how a child is doing instead. There should be less homework. Practice should mostly happen at school. Children should have free time without required tasks.

Doing without numerical grades is to be written into the school law as a basic principle; the school conference may decide to deviate from it. Events with experts and students are to develop ideas for how school could also work without traditional grades after ninth grade. Practicing and consolidating material is to take place mainly at school. For this, the platform calls for free, quiet and well-equipped rooms inside and outside school where educational staff can help. The Left also wants to examine reducing the number of in-class exams and to introduce more flexible exam formats.

The Left wants to end all cooperation between the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) and Berlin schools and to ban advertising to and recruitment of minors. Schools are to be military-free places where civilian peace education is firmly anchored. The party rejects conscription in any form.

The army should no longer come to Berlin schools. It should not advertise to children and teenagers. Schools should teach peace education instead. The Left is against a military draft.

In the platform's view, visits by youth officers, social media campaigns and appearances at job fairs aimed at minors violate principles of civic education such as the ban on overwhelming students and the requirement to present controversial issues as controversial. At the federal level, the Left wants to push for implementing the United Nations' Straight 18 standard and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, meaning no one under 18 is recruited. The platform points out that the UN has criticized Germany for this several times. The party also rejects what it sees as a growing militarization of society.

The Left wants to continue Berlin's school construction drive and speed it up where possible because, according to the platform, more than 25,000 school places are still missing. School buildings are to be more open to sports, music and other neighborhood uses. Through the Bundesrat, the party wants to initiate a special fund for education.

Berlin should keep building new schools and repairing old ones. The platform says over 25,000 school places are still missing. Clubs and music groups should be allowed to use school buildings. The federal government should create a special pot of money for education.

The basis is to be a reintroduced statewide school development plan, supplemented by binding plans in the boroughs. New buildings are to keep following the compartment standard, while renovation of existing buildings is to move ahead so that no places are lost. On heritage protection, the platform seeks more flexible and standardized rules for school renovations, and stacked standardized buildings for Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive community schools). The state-owned housing company HOWOGE is to be strengthened as a partner. For opening buildings to music schools, choirs and amateur ensembles, for example, there is to be a statewide rule modeled on the regulations for sports facilities.

The Left wants to markedly improve staffing in all-day programs at elementary schools: one full-time educator is to be responsible for 15 children instead of the current calculated 22. Federal money from the investment program for expanding all-day schooling is to be used for this. Management, rooms, cafeterias and school libraries are also to be better resourced.

More educators should work in all-day school programs. One staff member should look after only 15 children. Today the number is 22 on paper. Schools should get more cafeterias. Educators everywhere should be paid under a union wage agreement.

For managing all-day programs, a ratio of one position per 150 children is to be phased in, capped at two full-time positions. A substitute reserve is planned for longer absences, and fixed hours for indirect educational work are to apply at independent providers too. Providers are to receive state money only if they pay educators according to a collective wage agreement. Special educational needs are to lead to additional staff in all-day programs as well. Dedicated rooms for all-day programs are to be kept or created, cafeterias expanded especially at secondary schools, and existing school libraries protected.

The Left wants to municipalize the cleaning of Berlin's schools in the coming legislative term, meaning the public sector would do the work itself. The same step is to be examined for school lunches.

Schools should be cleaned by the boroughs' own workers. Today private companies often do this. The state should give the boroughs money and jobs for it. The Left also wants to look into this for school lunches.

Because school cleaning is a borough responsibility, the state is to provide the boroughs with the necessary positions and funding. For lunch provision, the party wants to examine municipalization. Food service and digital ordering are to be accessible so that every child who wants one gets a high-quality hot meal.

The Left wants to fund out-of-school education providers adequately and deepen their cooperation with schools, especially in all-day programs. Cultural education is to be secured permanently because, in the platform's view, it is the key to taking part in cultural life.

Learning programs outside school should get enough money. These include music schools and youth art schools. They should work more closely with schools. The money should be secure and not at risk in every budget.

The public institutions to be strengthened are youth art schools, youth traffic schools, school gardens and other green learning sites, and music schools. Cultural education should no longer have to fear for its existence with every two-year budget. The party also wants to advance education for sustainable development.

The Left wants everyone to leave school with a path toward vocational training or university, and promises a training guarantee. Career orientation is to start in elementary school and be a task for the whole school. The Oberstufenzentren (vocational school centers) are to be modernized technically.

Every young person should have a plan for a career after school. Those who do not want to go to college should be offered a training place. Schools should teach about jobs early. All schools should get workshops. Vocational schools should get modern equipment.

For the Oberstufenzentren (OSZ), a binding, fully funded model is to secure the replacement of equipment, including IT hardware and phone systems. Training of teachers for OSZ and for the subject of work studies is to be strengthened; practical-skills instructors are to be able to earn a master's degree and the second state exam while working and get their own career track. The subject Wirtschaft-Arbeit-Technik (economics, work, technology) is to be strengthened at all types of schools, with workshops set up step by step at every school. Programs such as Produktives Lernen (productive learning) and practice-based learning groups are to grow, and internships are to become more numerous and better. The transition into work is to become a quality criterion in school agreements, and career and college guidance teams are to get more credited hours.

The Left wants to expand the eleventh compulsory school year and make it easier for young people to move into dual vocational training. School-based and company-based vocational education would be handled by a single Senate department so that the transition into work has no gaps.

The Left wants to help young people more after school. The eleventh school year should offer more chances. Young people should be able to switch into job training more easily. One single department should be in charge of job training.

Young people in the Integrated Vocational Preparation track would get more support to switch into dual training even in the middle of the year. The party is also looking into founding a state institute. The Jugendberufsagentur (youth employment agency) would do more outreach counseling. Binding rules on career support are planned for girls and young women, young people with a migration or refugee background, single parents, and young people with disabilities. Services would gradually become accessible and receive more staff and material resources, including the districts' youth vocational assistance.

The Left wants to keep ethics as a regular school subject in Berlin. It rejects mandatory religious education, even in the form of a required elective.

In Berlin, all students take ethics class. The Left wants to keep it that way. Religion should not become a required subject. This also applies to a required elective.

The platform commits to ethics as a regular subject in Berlin schools. Religious education should not become mandatory. The party also rejects a required-elective model, in which students would have to choose between subjects.

The Left wants a binding tuition schedule for private schools and wants to enforce the constitutional ban on segregation by wealth (Sonderungsverbot). That ban says private schools may not select children based on their parents' income. The party gives priority to the public school system.

The Left wants fixed rules for tuition at private schools. Private schools may not pick children based on their parents' money. That is in the German constitution. The Left wants everyone to follow this rule. Public schools matter most to the party.

A binding schedule would set how much tuition independently run schools may charge. The party rejects incentives for founding new private schools. These include public subsidies for construction costs and shorter waiting periods. In its view this applies especially to elementary schools.

The Left wants to offer permanent positions to the freelance instructors at Berlin's Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) and music schools, without requiring them to reapply. This is meant to give them job security and give the districts legal certainty. Literacy and basic education programs for adults would also continue to be funded according to need.

Many teachers at adult education centers and music schools have no permanent job. The Left wants to offer them one. They would not have to apply again. There should also still be money for courses in reading, writing and math.

The state would give the districts the money for the permanent positions. For instructors who want to stay freelance, Berlin would find legally sound solutions, building on a planned federal reform. Instructor representatives and the unions would be closely involved. On basic education, the platform notes that one in eight adults lacks sufficient reading, writing and math skills. Funding would go to the adult education centers, independent providers and the Stiftung Grundbildung (Basic Education Foundation), with the aim of easy-to-reach programs.

The Left wants to raise daycare quality with more staff and more space per child. Falling birth rates are to be used to improve the staff-to-child ratio. In addition, Berlin's existing early education curriculum is to be defended, and child protection and health protection in daycare centers are to be strengthened.

The Left wants better daycare centers. Each trained worker should care for fewer children. Every child should have more space. All staff should know how to protect children. Daycare centers should become quieter and cooler in summer.

The target is, in calculated terms, one trained staff member for three children under three and for 7.5 older children. Absences for illness, vacation and training, as well as time for documentation, parent meetings and staff meetings, are to count in staffing calculations, and only trained professionals are to count fully. The party rejects any retreat from the curriculum that treats children as active agents and stresses diversity, sensitivity to discrimination and participation. Fixed time allotments are planned for child protection training and supervision, plus time budgets or extra staffing for child protection specialists. Citing high turnover and sick leave, the platform calls for health, noise and heat protection in every daycare center.

The Left wants to keep the pilot program for social work in daycare centers and expand it in stages. In the medium term, ten percent of Berlin's daycare children are to benefit, and in the long term the service is to be available everywhere. According to the platform, it strengthens child protection and relieves staff.

Some daycare centers have social workers. They help families with paperwork and other problems. The Left wants more of them. Soon, one in ten daycare children should have this help. Later, it should exist all over Berlin.

According to the platform, daycare social work promotes daycare attendance in the neighborhood, helps families deal with government offices and refers them to further support. The platform says it works preventively, lowers follow-on costs in youth welfare and reduces sick leave and staff shortages. The expansion is to happen in several stages and focus on daycare centers in difficult social settings. The end goal is permanent regular funding across the state of Berlin.

The Left wants to strengthen Berlin's state-owned daycare operators and raise their share of the city's daycare places to one third. Rooms and staff are to stay in the daycare system despite falling numbers of children. Daycare funding, which the party considers inadequate, is to be reviewed from the ground up.

Berlin has its own daycare operators. The Left wants them to offer one in three daycare places. There are fewer children than before. Rooms and staff should stay anyway. The Left wants new rules for paying for daycare. It is looking at a charge for employers.

Existing places are to be secured through renovation, and freed-up rooms and funds are to go toward things like language support, therapy services and accessibility. Temporarily unused daycare rooms are to be opened to youth services, all-day elementary schools, family centers, shared refugee housing and adult education centers. For the five state-owned operators, the party is examining limited borrowing and a stronger role in urban development contracts. The five percent share that providers pay themselves is to be reduced step by step, and flexible budgets are being considered. Also under review is a daycare fund, a tiered, earmarked special levy on employers. In the longer run, daycare is to be placed structurally within the education system.

The Left wants to lower barriers to daycare that, according to the platform, mainly affect children with disabilities and those from disadvantaged groups. All families are to receive the daycare voucher automatically, and youth welfare offices are to have access to a share of places. Home-based childcare providers are to be paid better.

Not all children get a daycare place easily. The Left wants to change that. Every family should get the daycare voucher automatically. It should be easy to understand. Youth offices should assign some places to children in hard situations. Home-based childcare workers should get more money.

The voucher is to arrive by the child's first birthday, including in plain language and in several languages. Outreach social work is to be strengthened and involve family centers, doctors' offices, shared refugee housing and Stadtteilmütter (neighborhood mothers). Parents keep their right to choose, and the state is to pay for places held open at independent providers and state-owned operators. Pay for home-based childcare is to cover real living costs and rents, and the improved staffing ratio is to apply there without loss of income. The party rejects mandatory extra payments, for example through daycare booster associations, as a form of social exclusion.

The Left wants every child to be able to attend daycare for at least two years before starting school, in order to build language skills. Home languages are to be recognized and used in daily daycare life. For children with disabilities, the party plans a push for barrier-free early education.

Every child should be able to attend daycare for at least two years before school. Children learn to speak better there. Families' home languages should also have a place in daycare. Parents should not have to pay fines. Children with disabilities should find a daycare place everywhere.

Responsibility for language assessments between youth and school offices is to be reorganized. The party rejects fines against parents and relies instead on neighborhood social work. Multilingualism is to be supported, for example in daycare language workshops, which the platform says also helps children learn German. Inclusion measures include barrier-free places close to home, individual support instead of fixed categories, and specialists in remedial, social and inclusive education at all daycare centers. Inclusive teaching is to become part of all relevant training programs, and support is to continue without a gap when children start school. Daycare centers are to be routinely equipped with modern media and media education concepts.

The Left wants to improve training for daycare staff and have more of it take place at public schools. Private schools would have to meet the same quality requirements. The program argues that many educators will retire soon and that, in the party's view, the profession risks losing its professional standards.

The Left wants better training for daycare workers. More people should train at public schools. Private schools should follow the same rules. Practical hours during training should be paid.

Target agreements on quality would be signed with all training institutions and would become a condition for state approval and funding. Career changers would get training options that bring them to level 6 of the German Qualifications Framework, putting them on par with regularly trained educators in status and pay. Vocational schools would receive more resources for working with the daycare centers where trainees do their practical work. Practical hours would generally be paid, and there would be dedicated training contracts distinct from ordinary employment contracts. At the federal level, the party supports uniform daycare standards and fewer separate social pedagogy training tracks. It also wants to actively promote daycare work as a career.

The Left wants to sign new university contracts that fund higher education institutions adequately, with securing study places as the priority. The renovation backlog is to be reduced; the party accepts a public university construction company able to borrow only under certain conditions.

The Left wants to give Berlin's universities enough money. There should be new firm contracts for this. Study places should be safe. Old buildings should be repaired. Private companies should not be the only ones to profit from this.

Right after the election, the party wants to take stock of cuts to funding, jobs and study capacity and of what the universities need. Together with them, it wants to draw up a vision for the higher education landscape in 2035 that also includes art colleges and church-affiliated colleges. Structural, development and staffing plans are to be drawn up by the directly elected university bodies. A university construction company is acceptable to the party only if co-determination and jobs in the building departments are secured, there is no outsourcing or evasion of collective agreements, and no student spaces are displaced. It rejects public-private partnerships in which profits stay private while risks remain with the state or the universities.

The Left wants studying in Berlin to remain free of tuition fees, including for students from abroad. The Studierendenwerk (student services organization) is to get more state money.

Studying in Berlin should stay free. This also applies to students from other countries. The student services organization should get more money. It helps students with advice, food and housing.

State subsidies to the Studierendenwerk would rise in line with need. The party wants this to secure support for students, from counseling and cafeterias to housing. According to the program, the freedom from tuition fees explicitly covers international students as well.

The Left wants universities to develop their research questions together with the city's residents and to make their findings publicly accessible. Open science is to receive targeted funding, and science communication is to be expanded.

The Left wants research to be open to everyone. Universities should work together with the people of Berlin. Everyone should be able to read research results. There should be funding for this.

Researchers and teachers are to get more support in publishing their results freely (open research, open access). Legal requirements on this are to be implemented. Science communication programs are to be expanded and secured for the long term. The responsible Senate department is to be enabled to initiate and guide this process.

The Left wants permanent tasks at universities to be carried out by staff on permanent contracts. Adjunct teaching is to be paid better, outsourced areas brought back in-house where needed, and the chair system replaced by department structures.

The Left wants better jobs at universities. People who do lasting tasks should get a permanent job. Adjunct teachers should get more pay. Universities should not hand work over to outside companies.

A central office is to assess the job profiles of staff in technical services, administration, teaching and research. Department structures are meant to give academics more independence alongside professors. Pay for adjunct teaching is to cover all the work involved and never fall below the minimum wage; adjuncts are not to replace regular teaching. The platform describes outsourcing as wage dumping and wants to bring affected areas back into the universities where needed. The "Forum Gute Arbeit" (forum on good work) is to become operational and include all groups of employees.

The Left wants to make access to study and academic work easier for disadvantaged groups. This includes support programs, more inclusion, stronger anti-discrimination work and more equality for women in academia.

The Left wants everyone to be able to study well. Disadvantaged students should get more help. People with disabilities should get suitable places to study. Universities should do more against discrimination.

Mentoring and support for students from non-academic families and with a migration background are to be expanded, and the orientation program secured. Studying alongside a job or care work is to become easier. Universities are to recognize foreign entrance qualifications themselves again, as an alternative to Uni-Assist. Support for disadvantaged groups, including nonbinary and queer people, is to grow. Structures against discrimination and abuse of power are to be strengthened, and the Berlin program for equal opportunity expanded.

The Left wants to further democratize university governing bodies. Technical, service and administrative staff are to take part in academic self-governance and also have a say in professorial appointments.

The Left wants more participation at universities. All groups should have a say. Technical and administrative staff should also help decide. For example, when new professors are chosen.

The current blanket exclusion of technical, service and administrative staff from academic self-governance is to end. Universities are to receive support when they introduce committees with four-way parity, in which all four status groups are equally represented. Academic self-governance is to be involved on a mandatory basis in structural decisions at the central and decentralized levels.

The Left wants to promote the quality of teaching and study. It plans more research-oriented teaching, more student-led tutorials, a stronger role for students in quality assurance and fewer exams.

The Left wants better teaching at universities. There should be more tutorials. These are study groups led by students. Students should be able to give their opinion on teaching. There should be fewer exams.

Cooperation with research institutes is to be expanded and the Berlin Center for Higher Education Teaching (BZHL) further supported. Accreditation procedures are to focus on essentials, be public and transparent, and give more weight to student feedback, for example through the training commissions. Modular degree programs are to become easier to complete. Credits earned at other universities, especially in Berlin and Brandenburg, are to be recognized more easily.

The Left wants to remove the disciplinary measures from Berlin's Higher Education Act. In the platform's view, they are aimed one-sidedly at disciplining students.

Berlin's university law contains disciplinary measures. These are penalties a university can impose on students. The Left wants to abolish these penalties. It says the rules are aimed one-sidedly at students.

Berlin's Higher Education Act allows universities to impose disciplinary measures on students. The Left wants to repeal these provisions. Its reasoning is that the measures serve one-sidedly to discipline students.

The Left wants to secure freedom of research and teaching through solid funding and by protecting university autonomy. Threatened fields of research and researchers facing hostility are to receive support, and civil clauses are to be implemented and extended.

The Left wants to protect the freedom of research. Universities should get enough money. Researchers who are threatened should get protection. Universities should only do research for peaceful purposes. This rule is called a civil clause.

The platform sees researchers exposed to attacks from the right and to commercial pressure. Pooling arrangements are meant to let staff work longer term beyond individual projects, for example in cancer research. Universities and research institutes are to cooperate more closely and share infrastructure, including outside the Excellence Strategy. Fields to be supported include peace and conflict research, gender and diversity research, and public health. The Left rejects placing international research cooperation under blanket suspicion in the name of "research security."

The Left wants Berlin to produce 3,000 teaching graduates every year, arguing that hiring needs will stay at that level. Universities are to receive additional money for this, and training capacity is to be tied to demand by law.

Berlin needs more teachers. The Left wants to train 3,000 new teachers every year. Universities should get more money for this. A law should say: there are as many places to study as Berlin needs teachers.

Universities that train teachers are to receive funds on top of the university contracts for the entire legislative term. The amount is to at least match the existing special programs "Beste Lehrkräftebildung" and "Steigerung Lehramtsabsolvierende." Training capacity is to follow the forecast hiring need on a binding basis. Through the Bundesrat, the Left wants to initiate a nationwide interstate treaty that includes joint federal and state funding.

The Left wants to gear teacher training degrees more closely to the profession. Teaching methods, educational science and classroom practice are to carry more weight from the bachelor's level on, and the practical semester is to be better supervised.

The Left wants to change the degree for future teachers. Students should get more practice in schools. They should learn earlier how to teach well. In the practical semester they should get more guidance. They should also be paid for it.

The teacher education law and the regulation on access to teaching careers are to be amended; lecturers in teaching methods are to have classroom experience themselves. Cross-cutting topics such as inclusion, anti-discrimination, civic education and German as a second language are to get more mandatory space. A university or laboratory school will be considered; the Left does not currently see a Bachelor of Education as useful. The exam load is to fall, and the lateral-entry master's and the Flex master's are to be expanded. Mentors at schools are to get more reduced-teaching hours, and work during the practical semester is to be paid.

The Left wants training to be the focus of the Referendariat (the post-degree teacher traineeship) and to raise pay to at least 1,800 euros. The teaching load counted against school staffing is to drop back to seven hours a week.

Trainee teachers are still learning the job. The Left wants to pay them at least 1,800 euros. They should have to teach fewer hours on their own. That leaves more time to learn. Experienced teachers should guide them better.

Guidance, mentoring and classroom observation are to be secured; teachers who supervise trainees are to get reduced-teaching hours written into the staffing guidelines. Training in base groups is to be kept. The Left rejects the reform of the traineeship planned by the CDU-SPD coalition in its current form. Better part-time rules are meant to make the traineeship compatible with care work.

The Left continues to see lateral entry as a way to recruit new teachers and wants to widen access. The list of shortage subjects is to be reviewed and extended or abolished altogether, and applicants with only one subject are to be allowed to teach as well.

Some people become teachers without a teaching degree. This is called lateral entry. The Left wants to make it easier. People with only one school subject should also be able to become teachers. They then get extra training in how to teach.

So far, lateral entry requires a so-called shortage subject. As examples of widening the list, the platform names recognizing German as a second language for the subject German and opening elementary school teaching to graduates in educational science. People who studied a subject that is not a shortage subject are to be admitted if they study a shortage subject afterward. One-subject teachers are to work after additional pedagogical training and, if they wish, add a second subject while on the job.

The Left wants practical, high-quality continuing education for staff at Berlin's schools. Training on inclusion, anti-discrimination, democracy education, and media literacy would become mandatory offerings. The platform argues that lifelong learning also improves school quality.

The Left wants better training for people who work in schools. Some topics should be required. Examples are inclusion and democracy. Schools should get extra training days for this.

The buildup of the state institute BLiQ is to become more transparent and be evaluated soon, with more input from trainee teachers, teachers, and students. Universities are to be closely involved, including through joint formats for student teachers and working teachers. Schools would get additional training days for the mandatory topics, which would also be given dedicated staff at BLiQ. The Left also wants an external review of the career-changer program at the StEPS study center, especially the subject-specific training in additional subjects.

The Left wants to modernize legal education: less mandatory material in the exam, a digital first state exam, and blind second grading. More training places in the Referendariat (post-graduate legal traineeship) are meant to shorten long waiting times, and the part-time option should be possible without a pay cut.

The Left wants to change how lawyers are trained. The exam should cover less required material. Students should be able to write the exam on a computer. The second grader should not know the first grade. There should be more places in the legal traineeship.

The mandatory exam material is to shrink by giving more weight to systematic understanding and method and by moving certain subjects from the state exam into university studies. Tenancy law, social law, environmental law, and sexual offenses law are to be strengthened. Prior grades should also stay unknown to examiners in the oral exam; a low-threshold contact office is to document conflicts, and exam panels should be diverse and gender-balanced. The party wants to cut waiting times of sometimes more than two years for the traineeship by adding capacity. For part-time trainees it calls for longer training stages, a six-hour day, and an end to the one-fifth cut in pay. Exam registration is to be possible online, and the justice system and rule of law should get more room in school lessons.