Linke on education

The Left wants to end the repair backlog at schools and universities. In the long run a wealth tax would fund the states for this; until then the federal government should set up a 100-billion-euro special fund. More teachers and childcare staff are also to be recruited.

Many schools are run-down. The Left wants 100 billion euros from the federal government for schools, daycare and universities. Later a tax on large fortunes should pay for it. There should also be more teachers.

The platform puts the repair backlog at nearly 55 billion euros for schools and 74 billion for universities. Schools would build up a ten percent substitute reserve so that illness does not lead to canceled classes. Qualifications of immigrant teachers would be recognized more easily and career changers trained better. Daycare centers and schools would also get investment funds for better protection against heat waves.

The Left wants the federal and state governments to be able to cooperate without limits on education and to anchor this as a joint task in the Basic Law. A federal framework law on education would secure the same minimum standards nationwide.

Today the federal government can do little for schools. The Left wants to change that. Federal and state governments should handle education together. The same minimum rules should apply in every state.

The cooperation ban currently limits federal co-funding of education. The planned framework law would set uniform minimum standards for social conditions and staffing, plus legal entitlements, in all states. The party wants to rule out privatization in the education sector.

The Left wants learning materials, meals and school transport to be free so that education does not depend on parents' income. Homework would be abolished because, in the party's view, it turns social differences into unequal school success.

Schoolbooks and devices for learning should cost nothing. Meals in daycare and school should be free too. So should the trip to school. There should be no more homework. Practice happens at school.

Schoolbooks, digital devices with their infrastructure, and other learning materials would be free. Added to this are lunch in daycare centers and schools and the trip to school. Practice, review and exercises would take place entirely during school hours.

The Left calls for a daycare quality law that actually delivers on the legal right to a daycare place. Daycare would be free, with fewer children per staff member and better pay for staff. The platform points to 430,000 missing places and overburdened employees.

Many children get no daycare place. The Left wants a new daycare law. Daycare should cost nothing. Each caregiver should look after fewer children. Caregivers should earn more.

The platform sets staffing ratios of at most three children under three and 7.5 older children per caregiver, counting absences, preparation time and work with parents. To raise wages, funding of collective agreements for municipal and nonprofit providers would be secured. Access to caregiver training would be eased and its quality raised. The party also backs language learning built into the daycare day and support for multilingualism.

The Left wants to replace the tiered school system with a common, inclusive all-day school where every diploma can be earned. In its view, today's tiered structure reinforces social inequality.

Today there are different types of schools. The Left wants one school for all children. School lasts all day. Students can earn any diploma there. Several professionals should help in each class.

The right to all-day education would be put into practice, preferably at comprehensive schools. Several educators would work in each class, backed by teams from social work, psychology and medicine; school psychologists and social workers would be permanently present at every school. A federal program would train teachers of German as a second language and offer language courses to relatives of immigrant children, and heritage languages would count as first or second languages. Other goals are accessibility, more say for students, and early civic education and media literacy.

The Left wants to prohibit advertising and lobbying in schools and bar the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) from advertising at schools and universities. Instead, students would learn about peace work and civilian alternatives. Digital learning tools should likewise not become a gateway for corporate interests.

Companies should not advertise in schools. The armed forces should not advertise there either. Schools should teach about peace. Artificial intelligence should not give grades.

The party opposes the goal of war-readiness in education. Learning software should not replace teachers, and AI should neither grade work nor predict learning outcomes. Teachers would get more training on AI, data protection and digital technology. Software in use should be open source, and freely available teaching materials should take priority.

The Left wants a levy: companies without apprentices of their own would help pay for training places elsewhere. All vocational training would be free and lead to a full qualification, with a legal entitlement, minimum pay and permanent hiring afterward. The platform points to many young people without a diploma and companies training less.

Some companies train no one. Those companies should pay into a fund. The fund pays for training places. Everyone should have a right to training. Apprentices should get more pay and a permanent job afterward.

Minimum pay would be 80 percent of the average collectively agreed apprentice wage, school fees would be dropped, and hiring afterward would come without a probation period. The Vocational Training Act would include a legal right to training; anonymous applications are meant to ensure equal chances, and the 'training maturity' criterion would be scrapped. Companies would help pay for apprentice housing, especially in rural areas. By 2030 the platform plans 160,000 more teachers at vocational schools. School-based vocational programs would be kept and supported with Aufstiegs-BAföG (advancement aid), and apprentices would get more say.

The Left wants to promote lifelong learning as an offer and improve working conditions in adult education. This includes a collective agreement for all employees in the sector and a continuing-education allowance.

Adults should be able to keep learning. It should be an offer, not a duty. People who work in adult education should get union-scale pay. There should be a training allowance.

Freelance contracts would become permanent jobs, and freelance instructors would be paid close to union scale. Employment agencies and other public clients would consider quality and collective bargaining coverage when awarding contracts. Employees would be legally entitled to time off for non-job-related education as well. People without vocational training could claim longer retraining and easier external exams, and the allowance would not be limited to industries in transition.

The Left wants to turn BAföG (federal student aid) into support for all students that need not be repaid and is paid regardless of parents, age or origin. It rejects tuition fees and wants broader access to universities. The platform cites poverty among students.

All students should get BAföG. That is state money for studying. They do not have to pay it back. It should be enough to live on. Studying should have no fees.

The aid would be adjusted regularly to living costs and stay above the at-risk-of-poverty line; people with tolerated status or humanitarian residence permits would also qualify. Student services organizations would get more money to lower fees, cafeteria prices and housing costs. A vocational diploma or completed apprenticeship would be enough to attend university. For refugees, easier recognition of degrees and additional study places are planned. Stronger student bodies and a mentoring program for first-generation students round this out.

The Left wants to push back fixed-term contracts in academia and fund universities through reliable core funding rather than third-party grants. Research should focus on peace, social equality and ecology; civil clauses would apply at all universities.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The Left wants permanent jobs for them. Universities should get enough steady money from the state. Universities should do research only for peaceful purposes.

Budget-funded doctoral positions would run at least six years, and the bar on collective bargaining in the academic fixed-term contract law would be lifted. Tax-funded research money would go only to institutions bound by collective agreements, and student employees would get a collective agreement. Also planned are a digital pact for universities, support for women at all career levels, and more room for pluralist approaches in economics. Contracts with companies and foundations would be disclosed. The education ministry is to stay out of funding decisions, and protection programs for persecuted researchers would grow.