PdF on education

The PdF wants to revive the discontinued federal program "Sprach-Kitas" (language daycare centers) and give it a much larger budget. In addition, every daycare center would need a binding language support plan so that all children receive systematic help.

The PdF wants to restart the "Sprach-Kitas" program. It should get much more money. Every daycare should have a fixed plan for language support. Staff should be able to get extra training. This helps children learn German better.

According to the platform, 41.5 percent of children in 2022 had a first language other than German. It says the end of the federal program left a gap in early language support. The relaunched program is meant to reach the whole country. Staff would receive specialized training to ensure quality.

The PdF wants trainee early childhood educators to be paid in every type of training program in order to address the staff shortage. It also wants early childhood care to be regulated uniformly at the national level.

The PdF wants to pay people who train as childcare workers. They should earn money during training. Nobody should need student aid for it. Daycare rules should be the same all over Germany. Ads should bring more people into the job.

Pay would apply to both the classic school-based track and the practice-integrated track. No one would have to rely on BAföG (student aid) or Aufstiegs-BAföG. Public campaigns are meant to make the paths into the profession better known. Uniform federal standards are meant to end the differences between states in quality and requirements.

The PdF wants to replace the states' education administrations with a central federal agency. A nationwide curriculum and centrally organized final exams are meant to ensure the same standards everywhere. The platform cites educational inequality and problems when families move between states.

The PdF wants one school system for all of Germany. Today each state makes its own rules. In the future a federal agency should be in charge. The curriculum and final exams should be the same everywhere. Children should also have to attend daycare.

The uniform curriculum would set basic requirements in core subjects. Exams for the Mittlere Reife (intermediate diploma) and the Abitur (university entrance diploma) would be organized centrally. The new federal agency would have uniform funding. The platform also calls for mandatory years in daycare as preparation for school. According to the PdF, a majority of the population supports this standardization.

The PdF wants a flexible school system that supports students according to their interests and strengths. It rejects full inclusion and wants to keep or reintroduce special schools. The platform cites overburdened teachers and falling classroom standards as reasons.

The PdF wants children to switch more easily between school tracks. Each child should learn according to their strengths. The PdF is against full inclusion. Inclusion means children with and without disabilities learn together. Special schools should stay or come back.

The model is meant to allow flexible adjustment to the diploma a student can reach and to follow the Finnish education system as a long-term example. Students would be grouped by interests and strengths to prepare them for a job or for university. Special schools would remain as supplementary institutions and be set up again in states that have few or none. The PdF speaks of a balance between integration and individual support in which the majority of students should face no disadvantages.

The PdF wants vocational and academic education to be treated as equal, both formally and in public esteem. In the platform's view, the education system focuses too heavily on the Abitur and university, which neglects the skilled trades and worsens the shortage of skilled workers.

The PdF wants to treat the Meister and the master's degree the same. The Meister is a top qualification in the skilled trades. The master's is a university degree. Schools should teach more practical skills. Trade jobs should get more respect.

Practical skills would become a fixed part of school curricula. Students would learn manual skills early and be able to deepen them during their school years. Policymakers should also make the contribution of trade and vocational careers to society more visible. The PdF expects this to foster individual talents and ease the shortage of skilled workers.

The PdF wants sports and swimming lessons to be a binding part of the curriculum from the first day of school. The platform points to the healthy development of children and teenagers and says many schools lack a firm rule.

The PdF wants sports and swimming to be required at school. This should apply from first grade. Children should try many kinds of sports. All children should be able to exercise, no matter what family they come from.

Besides basic skills such as swimming, children would get to know many different sports. This is meant to foster personal interests and give all children access to exercise regardless of social background. According to the PdF, movement in the school day strengthens not only physical health but also concentration, team spirit and mental strength.

The PdF wants schools to teach practical life skills in the final grades, such as taxes, insurance and personal finance. According to the platform, many young people leave school without this knowledge, especially when their parents cannot help.

The PdF wants students to learn things for everyday life. Examples are tax returns, insurance, finding an apartment and handling money. This should happen in the last school years. That way all young people should have similar chances.

The platform gives tax returns, insurance, apartment hunting and financial planning as examples. Curricula would be adapted for this purpose. The aim is an independent life regardless of family background. The PdF wants to offset differences in how parents raise their children.

The PdF wants schools to teach students early on how to use common IT tools and social media. Teachers are to receive targeted training for this.

The PdF wants more lessons about digital media. Children should learn computer programs early. They should also learn how to handle social media. Teachers should get training for this.

The platform calls media literacy a foundation for work and personal development. Students should get to know applications such as PowerPoint and Excel to be ready for working life. Handling social media platforms is to become part of the curriculum so that students are aware of opportunities and risks. Training programs are meant to ensure teachers can teach these skills.

The PdF wants to reform the student loans offered by KfW, the state development bank. Interest is to be dropped or capped, because the party considers the current terms inappropriate for a state bank.

Students can borrow money from KfW. KfW is a bank owned by the state. The PdF says the interest there is too high. It wants no interest or a limit on interest.

According to the platform, interest on KfW student loans places a heavy burden on students. As a solution it names interest-free repayment models or a ceiling on the interest rate. Education is to be treated as an investment that benefits society as a whole. High repayment costs should not make access harder.

The PdF wants to give all adults access to free or subsidized continuing education, especially on digitalization and new technologies. It justifies this with technological change, which it says requires constant learning.

The PdF wants courses for adults. The courses should be free or cheap. They are mainly about digital technology. Companies and universities should take part.

The platform describes lifelong learning as central to forward-looking education and labor market policy. The courses are to be easy to access and affordable. Practical programs matching labor market needs are to be developed together with companies and universities. This is meant to link theory and practice and carry knowledge into the workplace.

The PdF wants to make teacher training more practical through dual degree programs and attract career changers with appealing conditions. Teachers are also to be evaluated regularly and relieved of paperwork, in order to address the teacher shortage and improve teaching.

There are not enough teachers, especially in rural areas. The PdF wants more practical training. People from other jobs should become teachers more easily. Teaching should be rated regularly. Teachers should write fewer reports.

The platform calls for revised training standards, practice-oriented modules and dual teaching degrees, which are meant to help rural regions in particular. Career changers with work experience need a teaching qualification, which can be supplemented by training courses. A transparent evaluation system is to cover media use as well as teaching and social skills, combined with individual further training. School principals carry out the evaluations and serve as a contact point for students and parents in cases of serious misconduct. Administrative tasks are to be cut so that teachers can focus on teaching.

The PdF calls for a special budget to renovate and expand school buildings. In addition, all schools are to get broadband and modern technology, and IT is to be firmly anchored in the curricula.

The PdF wants to repair and expand schools. There should be extra money for this. All schools should get fast internet. Teachers must take courses on computer technology.

The platform describes schools' equipment with modern technology and digital teaching materials as inadequate. It calls for nationwide broadband connections, modern devices and new teaching methods. IT use is to be written into revised curricula, and IT training is to be mandatory for all teachers. Investment in buildings and equipment is meant to improve learning conditions and make teaching a more attractive profession.

The PdF wants to respond to discipline problems and violence in schools with police presence, security checks as a last resort and consistent penalties. It adds prevention programs, more funding for schools in disadvantaged areas and closer involvement of parents.

The PdF sees more violence and disruption in schools. At some schools, police should be present regularly. There may also be checks for weapons. For serious offenses, students may have to leave the school. There should also be training against violence.

At schools with weapons problems, random checks, for example with metal detectors, are to take place as a last resort; parents are also to be held accountable for violations. Serious rule-breaking is to lead to temporary suspension or expulsion, supplemented by mandatory anti-violence training. The platform names prevention programs such as "Faustlos" and "Coolness-Training". Schools in disadvantaged areas are to receive money for infrastructure, staff and security, as well as smaller classes. Student-teacher committees are to handle minor offenses, and parents are to work more closely with teachers.

The PdF wants BAföG, the state student aid, to be granted in the future without counting parents' income. In the party's view, this would strengthen educational fairness and make students more independent of their parents.

BAföG is money from the state for students. Today it depends on what the parents earn. The PdF wants to change that. The parents' income should no longer matter.

The platform criticizes that aid is lost when parents earn too much, even if they cannot or will not support their child. Some students even have to claim support through legal means, which it says causes family conflict. Middle-income families in particular often get nothing. The reform is also meant to fit today's family structures better. The party acknowledges that the change would be demanding financially and administratively.

The PdF wants to offer researchers permanent positions after the postdoc phase and raise state core funding for universities. Pressure from publication counts and third-party funding is to ease so that long-term and non-profit research gets more room.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The PdF wants permanent jobs for them. Universities should get more money from the state. Research that makes no profit should also get more help.

The platform sees fixed-term contracts, publication pressure and dependence on third-party funding as structural problems. Career paths besides a professorship are to be upgraded, for example in research administration. A bonus system is to reward open-access publications and interdisciplinary work; teaching and social relevance are also to count in evaluations. New funding programs are to support long-term projects without a market focus, for example in biodiversity protection. State-run innovation hubs are to concentrate on future technologies, and independent panels are to award the funds.