Linke on education

The Left announces a push for education without fees, ranging from nursery to adult education. According to the platform, the goal is for everyone to be able to have a say.

The Left wants education to cost nothing. That should start in nursery. It should also apply to courses for adults. This way everyone can take part in discussions.

The platform points to the two fee-free kindergarten years already introduced, which are meant to ease the financial burden on families. Since 2014, it says, about 7,140 teachers have been newly hired and 600 million euros invested in school construction. For the party, education is one of the areas that should be open and affordable to all.

The Left wants to extend educational leave to small businesses and apprentices and launch a comprehensive strategy for continuing education. Employees are to be able to gain new qualifications with time and financial security as the world of work changes.

Workers should be able to learn new skills more easily. Small companies should also give five days off for this. This should apply to apprentices too. People who study longer should keep getting paid.

The strategy is to be drawn up together with employee representatives and unions and is also meant to advance women's careers in the state civil service. The party wants to discuss models of education periods with continued pay, known in Austria as Bildungskarenz. Universities and vocational training centers are to take on a larger role in continuing education through pilot degree programs and model projects. A state-backed technology advice center is to counsel works and staff councils on digitalization and restructuring, and recognition of courses eligible for leave is to be made easier.

The Left wants to amend the Basic Law so that the federal government permanently co-finances education. The party considers temporary programs that can be cut to be insufficient.

The Left wants to change the constitution. The federal government should pay for education permanently. Today there are often only short-term programs. The party thinks this is too uncertain.

The platform sees education as a task shared by the federal government and the states. The federal government should therefore contribute to the costs reliably and for the long term. In the party's view, time-limited projects do not amount to lasting responsibility for education in the states.

The Left wants to improve the staff-to-child ratio in kindergartens and recruit more staff to do so. The platform sees better pay and working conditions as key.

The Left wants to make kindergartens better. There should be more staff per child. For this, childcare workers should get better pay. Kindergarten heads should also get more time.

The cap on management positions is to be removed entirely, so that large facilities can receive up to two management positions. Facilities with fewer than 50 children are to get half a management position, those with 51 to 99 children a full one. Also planned are a center for early childhood education at a university, social work in kindergartens, further investment in buildings and concepts, and better conditions for inclusion. The party supports the Jewish community's wish for a Jewish kindergarten.

The Left wants to gradually make meals in kindergartens and schools free of charge. The food should be regional and healthy and come more often from municipal kitchens.

The Left wants free meals in kindergartens and schools. This should come step by step. The food should be healthy and come from the region. Towns should run more kitchens of their own.

Every county and independent city is to have regional and healthy meal provision. A state program is to support municipal kitchens. In addition, the party plans an initiative so that more municipally owned operations prepare the meals for kindergartens and schools.

The Left wants to tackle the teacher shortage with many measures and, in the medium term, plan for more staff than is mathematically required. The benchmark should be the needs of schools, not a comparison with other states.

Thuringia does not have enough teachers. The Left wants to hire more of them. There should even be a bit more staff than needed. Then schools can replace teachers who are sick. The jobs should be permanent.

The party justifies the goal of 110 percent staffing with the many teachers on long-term sick leave. Career changers are to keep getting good conditions, hiring is to be permanent, and there are to be more permanent teaching assistants at all school types. School authorities are to get more staff to make offers faster; part-time teacher traineeships, an early job offer for everyone trained in Thuringia, and easier recognition of foreign qualifications are also planned. Young teachers in rural areas are to get special support. To ease workloads, the platform names health management, school administrative assistants, less red tape and better leave for further training.

The Left wants to scrap the special performance assessment at Gymnasium (academic high school) and instead award the intermediate school certificate automatically upon promotion to grade 11. It also wants to advance alternatives to numerical grades.

At academic high schools there is a special exam after grade 10. The Left wants to end this exam. Students who move on to grade 11 should get the intermediate certificate automatically. The party also wants fewer number grades. Sports, music and art should have no grades at all.

The platform notes that several other German states already award the intermediate certificate automatically upon promotion. In assessing performance, learning progress and development should take center stage rather than one-off knowledge tests. Where grades remain, they should be arrived at transparently and take individual development more into account. For sports, music and art, an assessment system without grades is to be created that disadvantages no child.

The Left wants to develop an overall plan for language support for children whose first language is not German. The support is to take place within regular classes and help with integration into society.

Some children do not speak German at home. The Left wants a plan to help them learn German. The children should learn in regular classes. Special teachers for German should help them.

All affected students are to receive language support that is built into regular schooling. The platform assigns a central role to teachers of German as a second language. Besides language learning, the aim is integration into society.

The Left wants every school to have a media plan and critical use of social media to be taught from the start of schooling. Learning materials, both print and digital, are to be freely accessible.

The Left wants every school to have a plan for media. Children should learn early how to deal with social media. Textbooks and digital learning materials should cost nothing. The state should help with the technology.

The media plan is to set out how media skills are taught across all subjects and how modern media are used in class. Students' own knowledge of social media is to be brought into lessons. The state is to give school operators more help with technical support. The party justifies free learning materials by saying that learning success should not depend on parents' income. Added to this are modern concepts and training for a digital school culture, as well as skills for dealing with racism and discrimination online.

The Left wants to train teachers by grade level in the future rather than by school type. This is meant to strengthen longer shared learning and the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive community school).

Today teachers train for one type of school. The Left wants to change that. Teachers should train for certain grade levels instead. The training should also include more practice.

Training is to become more practice-oriented and cover topics such as inclusive teaching, digital media, diverse classrooms and democracy education. The party supports the dual-track lower secondary teaching degree in Erfurt and lower secondary teacher training in Jena; in Erfurt, vocational school teacher training is to grow, especially for career changers. Instead of rigid rules on subject combinations, the platform relies on better advising during studies. The teacher training seminar and the state institute for teacher development are to be placed under one leadership.

The Left wants to strengthen the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive community school) and sees it as Thuringia's main school type in the long run. The party regards longer shared learning as key to educational success and equal opportunity.

In community schools, children learn together for a long time. The Left wants to strengthen this type of school. Later it should be the most important school type in Thuringia. The party says this gives all children better chances.

The school conference is to decide on a school's development without the school operator being able to veto it. The party considers all-day schooling the best setting for this. Other school types are also to be able to develop; what matters to the platform is easy movement between them. School partnerships and branch models are to secure small rural sites, and renovation of school buildings is to keep being funded. Practice-based learning is to be written into the school law, and every school is to have its own plan drawn up with parents and students.

The Left wants to abolish parental fees for after-school care and extend all-day offerings to grades 5 and 6. The party sees all-day schools everywhere as the path to equal opportunity.

The Left wants parents to pay nothing for after-school care. Children in grades 5 and 6 should get all-day programs too. Every school should have school social work if possible. This should give all children equal chances.

The platform justifies all-day schooling by saying that success with work done at home depends heavily on the family. The extended offerings are to become fee-free as they are built up. All after-school care workers are to be offered a full-time position, also with a view to the legal right to all-day care in elementary school from 2026. School social work is to keep growing until, if possible, every school has a reliable offering.

The Left wants to further expand joint teaching of children with and without disabilities. To do so, it relies on good equipment, further training and more special education staff.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. This is called inclusion. The Left wants to expand it further. For this there should be more special education experts. Special needs centers should stay.

The platform speaks of a fundamental right to inclusive education and stresses cooperation among child, family and school. A training drive for special education is planned, including short-term courses for all teachers. Special needs centers remain for children who cannot be taught in joint classes. The mobile special education service is to be strengthened, and special education staff are to cover substitute lessons only in exceptional cases.

The Left wants to conclude a new framework agreement with the universities under which their funding rises by at least four percent every year. This is meant to secure core funding beyond 2025.

The Left wants to give universities more money. Each year it should be at least 4 percent more. For this there should be a new agreement with the universities. It should apply from 2025.

According to the platform, core funding has risen since 2016 and is secured through 2025. For the Gera-Eisenach Cooperative State University, the party wants to examine whether to set up its own master's programs. An investment plan for university buildings is meant to reduce the renovation backlog.

The Left wants to scrap the fees charged to long-term students as well as other study-related fees. The state would make up the lost revenue for the universities. The goal is study in Thuringia that is as free and fee-free as possible.

People who study for a very long time must pay fees in Thuringia. The Left wants to end these fees. Other fees for studying should also go. The state should give the universities the missing money.

The program calls for ending long-term tuition fees and other study-related charges. Universities would not lose money because the state would cover the shortfall from its budget. The Left bases this on its idea of a social and open university where the financial burden on students stays low. It also counts dorms, cafeterias and a low-cost student transit ticket as part of that.

The Left wants the federal government to contribute permanently to the basic funding of universities. University construction should again be listed in the Basic Law as a joint task of the federal and state governments. An additional social pact for higher education would bring money for student services.

The Left wants more federal money for universities. The federal government should pay permanently, and the amount should rise regularly. It should also help build university buildings. And it should give money for dorms and cafeterias.

The program calls for writing the joint task of university construction back into the Basic Law. A permanent higher education pact with regularly rising funds would relieve the states in basic funding and especially in teaching. Through a social pact for higher education, the federal government would help pay for expanding the social infrastructure run by student services organizations. The Left also pushes for more federal agencies to be located in Thuringia and more research institutions to be founded in eastern Germany. Within the state, university buildings are to be preserved for the long term and made climate neutral.

The Left wants to continue and expand the "StudiumThüringenPlus" funding program. It pays first-year students who qualify for BAföG (federal student aid) 500 euros for equipment. Social work at universities and a service app for students are to be added.

In Thuringia some students get 500 euros when they start. The money is for computers, books or language classes. The Left wants to keep this program and make it bigger. Applying should become easier. There should also be more counseling and an app for students.

The 500-euro start-up aid is aimed at students from lower-income families who qualify for BAföG and is meant for hardware, software, books or language courses. The Left wants to simplify the application process and lower barriers to access. The pilot project for social work at the Nordhausen university is to be evaluated, and the parts that work are to be introduced at all universities. A service app would bundle all information and procedures related to studying in one place. The participation rights introduced in 2018 are to be reviewed and developed further together with the groups at the universities.

The Left wants to make the move from school to university easier and more flexible. The numerus clausus (grade-based admission limit) is to be debated again for individual subjects, and qualifications other than grades should count more. Barriers for people with vocational qualifications, people with disabilities and refugees are to come down.

Some subjects need very good grades to get in. The Left wants to talk about this rule again. Other skills should count too. People with job training should find it easier to study. The same goes for people with disabilities and for refugees.

The program justifies the debate about the numerus clausus with the shortage of skilled workers in important professions and with fairness and equal opportunity in education. Qualifications beyond the school-leaving grade are to carry more weight in admissions. The Left wants to keep reducing existing barriers for people with vocational qualifications, people with disabilities and refugees. Universities are to draw up and carry out diversity strategies for this purpose.

The Left wants to push at the federal level for a fundamental overhaul of BAföG (federal student aid). The aid should reach all students and protect them from poverty.

BAföG is money from the state for students. The Left wants to change BAföG a lot. All students should get support. The money should be enough to live on.

The demand is addressed to the federal government, which is responsible for BAföG. The Left wants aid that protects against poverty and is open to all students. It places this within its goal of keeping the financial burden of studying low.

The Left rejects tying universities even more closely to third-party grants if that weakens their basic funding. In its view, competing for research money costs time and leads to insecure jobs. It wants to keep the transparency register, the civil clause and open access.

Researchers often have to apply for outside money. That takes a lot of time. The Left does not want more of this. Universities should get enough fixed money. Research should be open and free to read.

The program describes the competition for outside research money as a source of performance pressure and short contracts that it says harm research and teaching. The public transparency register is meant to keep business interests from shaping research one-sidedly, and the civil clause ties science to ethical standards; both are to stay. The Left backs a copyright law that secures open access to research results. A pilot project would test how universities can publish independently of publishers and licenses. Digital teaching and learning formats would continue to receive funding.

The Left wants a collective bargaining agreement for student employees and more permanent positions at universities. Adjunct teaching contracts should be used only to bring practical knowledge into teaching. In the program's view, staff need job security for teaching and research to succeed.

Many people at universities only have short contracts. The Left wants more permanent jobs. Students who work at the university should get a union contract. A union contract sets pay and contract length for everyone. Teachers without a permanent job should also have more say.

The agreement would set a minimum wage, minimum contract lengths, and rights and duties; Thuringia would campaign for it in the states' joint bargaining body. Student employees, adjunct lecturers and freelancers would be represented on staff councils, and misuse of adjunct contracts would be stopped. The Left commits to permanent jobs for permanent tasks and to career paths besides the professorship; it wants to change federal law and use the state's own leeway for this. Teaching staff for special tasks at universities of applied sciences would have the same teaching load as at universities. The regulation on teaching loads would be revised in a workshop process with the main staff council and the unions.

The Left wants to set up a professorship in pluralist economics along with a research institute. Another chair would deal with colonialism, migration, racism and antisemitism. Universities of applied sciences are to get the right to award doctorates.

The Left wants new professorships in Thuringia. One should teach other views of the economy. Another should do research on racism, refugees and hatred of Jews. Applied universities should be allowed to award doctorates themselves.

According to the program, the economics professorship and institute are meant as a counterweight to neoclassical teaching and would include Keynesian, Marxist, ecological and feminist theories. The reason given is the need for research and advice for a social and ecological transformation. The second chair is part of a focus on research and teaching about social development and transformation. For universities of applied sciences, the Left wants to put a model for transferring doctoral rights into law and to fund mid-level academic staff. The state would permanently fund the universities' start-up founders network.

The Left wants to reform the adult education law and strengthen the basic funding of providers. One percent of the education budget would be set aside for adult education. A training bonus for low earners and mobile offerings in rural areas would be added.

Adults should also be able to keep learning. The Left wants to give more fixed money for this. People with low incomes should get money for further training. In rural areas there should be online classes and an education bus. Reading and writing classes should be expanded.

The reform is meant to give providers planning security; funding would better reflect rising costs, projects would run longer and staff would get better working conditions. The training bonus is modeled on existing training vouchers and would be opened to more groups. A pilot project would make access easier for older people and rural residents through e-learning and an education bus. Literacy classes, language support, civic education and basic education would be expanded and made permanent. Second-chance schooling for adults would be adequately funded and available in the regions.