Linke on education

The Left does not want to extend the existing "Schulkonsens" (cross-party school pact), which it says has blocked reforms. Instead, an inquiry commission is to work out how Bremen can break the link between social background and educational success.

In Bremen, success at school depends a lot on the family. The Left wants to change that. A commission should make a plan for it. Schools with many problems should get the most money and staff. Every child should get a daycare place.

The commission is to name a target date as well as the measures and school structures needed. Schools facing the greatest challenges are to receive the most resources and the most attractive working conditions. Every child is to get a daycare place in their own district, and learning and working conditions are to improve. Universities are to help address societal challenges such as the climate crisis and offer good study conditions in all subjects.

The Left wants swimming lessons to start as early as second grade and wants PE in schools to be guaranteed. Swimming courses canceled because of the COVID pandemic are to be made up.

Children should learn to swim earlier. Swimming lessons should start in second grade. Canceled courses should be made up. PE should more often be taught by trained PE teachers.

Intensive swimming courses modeled on Bremerhaven are to supplement lessons. In the long run, a larger share of PE is again to be taught by specialist teachers. The party wants to improve conditions at the sports-focused secondary school on Ronzelenstraße. It argues that enjoyment of and ability in sports should be taught early.

The Left wants to introduce a training fund into which all companies pay. Larger firms are to contribute more than small ones, and companies that do not train are to help finance those that do, so that every young person gets a chance at an apprenticeship.

There are too few apprenticeship places in Bremen. The Left wants to set up a fund. All companies pay money into it. Big companies pay more than small ones. The money helps the companies that train. That way more young people should get a place.

The program justifies the fund by noting that fewer than half of eligible companies train apprentices and that youth unemployment in Bremen, at 9 percent, is twice the national average. According to the party, it would be the first fund of its kind in Germany. The money is to pay for language courses, subject-specific offers, social-pedagogical support, and inter-company training cooperation. Small businesses are to get special support when they take on apprentices facing greater difficulties.

The Left wants to guarantee career guidance and internships for everyone from eighth grade on and to expand outreach counseling. Language-sensitive exams and more affordable housing are meant to make it easier for apprentices to graduate and manage daily life.

All students should get to know jobs from grade 8 on. They should also be able to do internships. Advisers should go to young people in the neighborhoods. Exams should use simpler language. There should be more cheap housing for apprentices.

Besides the federal employment agency, more providers and new formats are to be used; the career discovery courses are to take place at all Bremen schools. Outreach counseling is to work more closely with migrant and neighborhood communities, including in people's native languages. More language-sensitive written exams are meant to keep apprentices who succeed in practice from failing over wording. The youth employment agency is to be linked more closely with the off-the-job training networks, and the "Kompetenzlotsen" project in Bremen-Nord is to be secured permanently.

The Left wants to make training at vocational schools, for example for nursing and childcare professions, free of charge and paid. The off-the-job training networks are to be developed further, and there are to be more part-time apprenticeships and more women in dual vocational training.

Bremen needs many new skilled workers for nursing and childcare. Training at vocational schools should cost nothing. Trainees there should get paid. There should be more part-time training. That helps people who look after children or care for relatives.

School-based training is to be partly converted into dual training to make it more attractive and put it on par with other apprenticeships. The training networks, which created more than five hundred additional places, are to be developed so that more apprentices move into companies. Projects encouraging training in gender-atypical fields are to be expanded. Part-time training is aimed mainly at people with childcare or caregiving duties, who according to the program are disproportionately women.

The Left wants training for daycare professionals to be paid throughout and wants more training places to fix the staff shortage. Career changes and recognition of foreign qualifications should become easier.

Daycare centers lack trained staff. The Left wants to pay people during training. That way more people should learn the job. Foreign qualifications should also be recognized more easily.

Practice-integrated training with collectively agreed pay is to become the standard route in the long run and also be possible part-time. Training as a social education assistant should already be paid. Elementary schools are to serve as training sites, and a dual bachelor's degree in early childhood education is to be added. Multi-professional teams, including staff with university degrees, should work in daycare. The career-changer program should be opened to foreign qualifications and accompanied by language courses; extra time should be set aside for on-the-job mentoring.

The Left wants smaller daycare groups and more staff per child, starting in disadvantaged neighborhoods. All daycare centers should be inclusive, and the federal Sprach-Kitas (language daycare) program should be continued and expanded.

The Left wants smaller groups in daycare. A group should have 15 children. That helps children learn to speak better. Children with and without disabilities should go to daycare together.

The improvements are to start in daycare centers in so-called index neighborhoods and those with a therapeutic special-needs profile, then everywhere. The party demands that the end of the federal Sprach-Kitas program be reversed; if federal money is missing, the state should step in. The platform considers separate specialized facilities for children with support needs usually the worse path. Inclusive daycare centers should get teams with psychological, special-education and therapeutic staff and suitable rooms.

The Left wants to let Bremen's cross-party school agreement expire in 2028 and convert the Gymnasien (academic-track high schools) into inclusive schools for everyone. In its view, today's school system cements social division and slows innovation.

Bremen has academic high schools and comprehensive schools. The Left wants to change that. All children should go to one kind of school together. The academic high schools should become schools for everyone.

The school agreement is a pact between governing and opposition parties on the school structure that has existed since 2008. The change is to be prepared in the coming legislative term. A commission of inquiry made up of researchers and politicians should propose how to decouple educational success from social background. Pilot schools are to try out new teaching approaches, preferably in poorer neighborhoods, and pass their knowledge on to the rest of the system. Elementary and comprehensive schools should share campuses where possible.

The Left wants to abolish homework that students are required to do outside school hours. Schools should also be supported if they want to move away from written tests and grades.

The Left wants no more mandatory homework at home. Children should do their tasks at school. Schools should also be able to try other ways than grades.

The demand concerns assignments that must be done at home after class. The platform describes written tests and grades as outdated instruments. The party places this in the context of a school reform meant to make education less dependent on poverty and background.

The Left wants to give elected school bodies more decision-making powers and involve students more in shaping lessons. School hours and forms of learning are to become more flexible.

The Left wants schools to decide more for themselves. Students should have more say in lessons. School for teenagers should start at 9 a.m. The fixed 45-minute lessons should become more flexible.

The reformed school administration law is to be put into practice in schools, with support offered by the state. Curricula are to become more flexible and modern so that students can help shape lessons. The party supports a 9 a.m. start for teenagers, arguing that it fits their sleep rhythm better. It considers the 45-minute lesson grid outdated. Elementary schools are to be supported in introducing mixed-age learning and an open school entry phase.

The Left wants to extend digital equipment in schools: tablets for social workers and assistants as well, smartboards, Wi-Fi and IT staff. Teachers should no longer have to administer devices.

The Left wants more technology in schools. Social workers and assistants should also get a tablet. Classrooms should get digital boards. IT staff should take care of the devices, not teachers.

After all students and teachers were given iPads, social workers and assistants are to receive tablets too. Classrooms are to get smartboards on request, and schools are to receive service hours from IT staff. The party expects the federal government to cover a large share of the costs through a second Digitalpakt Schule (digital pact for schools); where that is not enough, the state should pay. Broadband connections and Wi-Fi in all rooms are to be completed soon. Students should also learn to deal critically with digital offerings.

The Left wants to keep redistributing money and staff, based on social data, toward schools in poorer neighborhoods. The aim is equal educational opportunities for children disadvantaged by poverty or a migration background.

The Left wants to give more help to schools in poor neighborhoods. Two staff members should be in each lesson there. These schools should become all-day schools first. Lunch at all-day schools should be free for all children.

A second staff member in class is to be provided at all schools in social categories IV and V. Staff are to be assigned centrally again so that shortages do not mainly hit the weakest children. All-day schooling is to be expanded first in disadvantaged neighborhoods, with free lunch. Language and math support are to grow without cutting other subjects, and the increased material budgets are to stay and rise with prices. New neighborhood education centers are to be built first in Kattenturm, Blumenthal and Bremerhaven-Lehe. At the federal level, the party wants funding distributed by social criteria rather than by the Königsteiner Schlüssel (the standard formula for sharing costs among states).

The Left wants to keep developing the school system toward one common school for all children and give schools more staff and support for this. Refugee children are also to enter regular school life quickly.

The Left wants all children to learn together. This includes children with disabilities. Schools should get more help and more staff for this. Refugee children should join regular classes quickly.

The plans include temporary learning groups at schools in social categories IV and V, stronger counseling centers (ReBUZ) with staffing that adjusts automatically, and closing the school on Fritz-Gansberg-Straße. The three remaining special schools are to admit children without special needs as well. The formal classification of children as having special needs is to end, and school assistants are to be assigned to a class if the pilot project is evaluated positively. Every school is to get at least one full school social work position, and team time is to count as working time. Heritage-language classes are to grow and the heritage language is to count as a foreign language in final exams; the party seeks the same for sign language at the federal level. Partly integrated preparatory courses are to be expanded and separate welcome classes closed.

The Left wants a training drive to recruit more teachers, educators and social workers, and wants teachers' working time recalculated. In the short term, lateral entry and relief measures are to help.

Schools lack many skilled staff. The Left wants to train more people for these jobs. Teachers should be less overloaded. Their working time should be calculated anew.

University and teacher-training places are to grow, especially in shortage subjects, and entry into inclusive education studies is to become easier. Social work programs and vocational schools for social pedagogy are also to get more capacity. Substitute staff are to be employed directly by the city, ending temporary agency work through the Stadtteilschule. In the Bundesrat, the party wants to push for a treaty between the federal government and the states with permanent federal funding. Supervised lateral entry leading to a full teaching degree and easier recognition of foreign qualifications are to help in the short term. New working-time models are to be developed in the next term with staff councils and unions; right away, more tasks are to count toward teaching hours and more administrative staff are to be hired.

The Left wants to adjust school location planning to birth numbers and found additional schools instead of overcrowding existing ones. School buildings are to be publicly owned and not rented on a large scale.

The Left wants to build new schools. Existing schools should not get too full. School buildings should belong to the city. The city should not rent them from private companies.

Planning is to be adjusted quickly to current birth trends. Specialist and small-group rooms are not to be turned into classrooms. Land for schools is to be set aside early when new building areas are developed. The construction departments of the education authority and of Immobilien Bremen are to be given enough staff and resources. If outside partners build in exceptional cases, these should be the housing companies GEWOBA or BREBAU rather than private builders. In the party's view, long-term renting burdens the education budget.

The Left wants to revise curricula and establish work against racism, antisemitism and discrimination based on gender identity as a task across all subjects. Teachers are to receive training for this.

The Left wants more civic education in schools. Schools should work against racism and hatred of Jews. Germany's colonial past should also be taught. Teachers should get training on these topics.

Alongside National Socialism, German colonial rule is to become a fixed part of the curriculum. Training is meant to enable teachers to step in when discrimination occurs and to address these topics in class. The anti-discrimination offices at the counseling centers (ReBUZ), soliport and networks with out-of-school providers are to be strengthened. The state agency for civic education is to get more staff and funds. In the party's view, the project "Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage" does not relieve schools of dealing with the issue themselves every day.

The Left calls for at least €1,000 more per vocational student per year to reach the level of the other city-states. Vocational schools are to be renovated or rebuilt and geared toward joint teaching.

The Left wants more money for vocational schools. It should be at least 1,000 euros more per student each year. The buildings should be rebuilt or repaired. Refugees and young people with disabilities should learn together with everyone else.

The existing site plan for rebuilding or renovating all vocational schools is to be turned into concrete construction plans backed by budget funds. Separate groups for refugee or disabled young adults are to give way to joint classes. Every vocational school is to get at least one social worker plus more teachers and educational staff. The right to attend school is to extend to age 25 so that refugees and new immigrants can reach vocational training. Students in career orientation classes with language learning should be able to repeat the year, with follow-up programs afterward.

With a new science plan, the Left wants to raise the basic funding of Bremen's universities to at least the national average. The former private Jacobs University is to receive no more tax money.

The Left wants more money for Bremen's universities. They should get as much as the German average. The private university in Bremen-Grohn should get no tax money.

A new science plan is to be presented within the next four years. The funding goal is to be written bindingly into the state's medium-term financial planning. The party notes that the Science Plan 2025 was not fully funded because of the pandemic and that construction and renovation projects were delayed. The multi-million funding for the private university in Bremen-Grohn has ended; the party wants to keep it that way because the institution finances itself through high tuition fees.

The Left wants university staff to be employed on permanent contracts as a rule after completing a doctorate. Teaching assignments are to be limited and better paid, and student assistants covered by a collective agreement.

Many researchers only have temporary contracts. The Left wants to change that. After their doctorate, they should usually get permanent jobs. Adjunct teachers and student assistants should also get better conditions.

At the federal level, the party seeks to abolish fixed-term contracts under the academic fixed-term contract law for the postdoc phase. Bremen's higher education law and the teaching load regulation are to be revised after an evaluation. A bridging fund is to make it possible to pay permanent positions from third-party funds as well. Childcare and caregiving periods are to count toward funding periods, if necessary through a state fund. The party rejects teaching assignments chained over several semesters; pay is to rise with collectively agreed salaries and cover preparation time. It supports a separate collective agreement for student assistants.

The Left wants to make it easier to get into university, especially for children from non-academic families. It rejects numerus clausus admission limits, wants to scrap administrative fees and calls at the federal level for parent-independent BAföG (student aid) as a full grant.

The Left wants more people to be able to study. This should also be easier without the Abitur school diploma. University fees should be dropped completely. Students should not have to pay back their student aid.

Access without the Abitur is to become less bureaucratic. Where grade-based admission limits remain, other criteria such as completed vocational training are to count, and applicants from second-chance education are to get priority again. The state's study-start scholarship is to become permanent and open to more low-income benefit recipients. The BAföG reform is to bring a grant that does not depend on parents' income and covers rents in a big city. For refugees, foreign certificates are to be recognized more easily and more bridging and language courses offered.

The Left wants to create additional study places, above all in teacher training, health professions and social work. Gender research is also to be strengthened.

The Left wants more study places. This applies mainly to future teachers and to social work. Midwives should also get better training. Research on gender should be strengthened.

The university is to get more teacher-training places, especially in inclusive education, and a teacher-training program in philosophy. Sports facilities are to be prepared quickly for the new sports program. The master's program in clinical psychology and psychotherapy is to start in the 2024/25 winter semester. Gender research is to be strengthened within departments, or a gender studies program set up. At Hochschule Bremen, health professions, especially midwifery training, are to be strengthened, with an easier part-time route to a bachelor's degree. Social work is to get more capacity in Bremen and Bremerhaven.

The Left wants to achieve four-way parity in university bodies, meaning equal voting weight for the four status groups. Student representative bodies are to be allowed to speak on general political issues.

At universities, committees decide many things. The Left wants all four groups to have the same number of votes there. Students are one of these groups. Their representatives should be allowed to speak on all political topics.

The party wants to strengthen universities as places of democratic participation. A legal expert opinion is to clarify how four-way parity can be implemented in academic self-governance. Student representative bodies are to be given a general political mandate.

The Left supports moving part of the University of Bremen to the city center. A health campus is also to be set up there.

The Left wants to bring part of the university to the city center. All possible buildings and sites should be checked for this. The university should have a say early on. A health campus should also be built in the city center.

All building and site options are to be examined to find a solution that works for university operations and is affordable in the long run. The university's bodies are to be involved early and closely. The planned health campus is to bring together universities, school-based nursing training, research institutes and the health industry.

The Left wants to bring the private Constructor University into Bremen's public university system and end public money for it as a private institution. In Bremen-Nord, public daycare centers, elementary schools, and youth and cultural facilities are also to be strengthened.

There is a private university in Bremen-Nord. The Left wants to make it part of the public universities. As a private university it should get no more state money. There should be more public daycare centers. Schools and youth clubs should get more staff.

The party wants more daycare places, especially for children under three, run by the public provider KiTa Bremen; it rejects private for-profit operators such as FRÖBEL but considers small daycare units at companies conceivable. Elementary schools in disadvantaged areas are to get more teachers and social workers. The vocational schools are to be merged on the BWK site in Blumenthal as planned, with a reliable timeline. The Science Park is to become commercial land, and the sports fields at Oeversberg are to stay. Youth centers, cultural spaces such as NUNATAK, and the Gustav-Heinemann-Bürgerhaus are to get more money.