SPD on education

The SPD wants more staff per child in Berlin's Kitas (daycare centers). This is meant to free up time for individual support, talks with parents and documentation. The state-owned daycare operators are also to be put on a secure financial footing.

Daycare centers should have more staff for the children. Then staff have more time for each child. The SPD also wants to give more money to the daycare centers owned by the state of Berlin.

The staffing ratio is to rise, including for tasks away from the children such as documentation and parent meetings. The better ratio for children under three is to be made permanent, and the scientifically recommended levels are to be reached in the next legislative term. Only staff who are actually present would count, excluding vacation, illness and training. The plan also includes a higher share of qualified staff, a larger staffing supplement for integration daycare centers and targeted social work in daycare. The state-owned daycare operators are to receive additional investment funds, and parent representative bodies are to get their own offices.

The SPD wants mandatory language assessments for all children and targeted help before school for those who need it. The compulsory final year of daycare is to be enforced across Berlin. Every child should be able to follow lessons when starting school.

All children should take a language test before school. Children with problems then get help with speaking. The last year of daycare should be required for all children. This way all children can keep up at school.

All daycare centers are to get extra specialist staff for everyday language learning, and these staff would not count toward the staffing ratio. The staffing supplement for children whose first language is not German is to be brought back. Daycare centers in difficult areas would get an extra program modeled on the "Sprach-Kitas" program that ended in 2025. For the move to school, the SPD plans binding cooperation between daycare and schools, shared diagnostics and transition plans. Family meeting places are to be expanded, and schools are encouraged to host parent cafés.

The SPD wants twice as many Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive schools where students learn together through all grades) and wants every secondary school to offer all diplomas up to the Abitur. Its reasoning is that family background still too often decides a child's path. It opposes more Gymnasien that start in grade 5.

In a Gemeinschaftsschule all children learn together for a long time. The SPD wants twice as many of these schools. Every school should offer all diplomas, including the Abitur. The SPD does not want more Gymnasien that start in grade 5.

Every school is to offer an upper secondary level leading to the Abitur, alone or jointly with other schools. The SPD wants to end the Probeunterricht (trial lessons) in its current form and replace it with a revised admission process for Gymnasien that also applies to those starting in grade 5. The transition to secondary school from grade 7 is to be reviewed. The Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (state bilingual schools) is to keep all its sites and gain new ones. Independent schools that operate like public schools could receive full funding.

The SPD wants children with and without special needs to learn together in mainstream schools. The number of special-needs centers is not to grow; instead they are to be converted into inclusive options under a binding ten-year plan.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. The SPD does not want new special schools. The existing ones should change over ten years. Regular schools get more specialists for this.

Mainstream schools are to get enough teachers and specialists trained in special education, and special-needs focus areas are to be spread evenly across Berlin. The SPD wants to expand inclusive focus schools. For the roughly 2,500 students currently not attending school, a strategy is to be drawn up with advocacy groups and the Senate. Multi-professional teams and temporary small classes are to support inclusion without replacing teachers. The elective subject German Sign Language is to be rolled out further.

The SPD wants to give schools more decisions of their own on teaching, staff and budgets. At the same time, schools are to work more with collected data. The school supervisory authority is to become an independent oversight and complaints body.

Schools should decide more on their own. This covers teaching, staff and money. They should measure more often how well children learn. School oversight should become independent and take complaints.

Regular learning assessments, feedback systems for schools and quality monitoring are to be expanded. The data would range from basic skills in language and math to social development, graduation rates and a school's democratic culture. Principals and other leaders are to be trained for their wider duties and for using school data. The SPD wants to end the supervisory authority's current double role as both overseer and line manager.

The SPD wants to trim the framework curricula, make timetables more flexible and expand all-day programs at elementary schools. Lessons and activities outside class are to be linked more closely. Learning materials are to stay free for every child.

The curricula should get shorter. Schools should plan their hours more freely. Afternoon care should grow up to grade 6. School materials stay free for all children.

The Flex-Ganztag (flexible all-day program) at elementary schools is to be expanded up to and including grade 6. Partnerships with sports clubs, music schools, school gardens, youth traffic schools and youth art schools are to be strengthened. The SPD wants to support stays abroad based on social criteria, following Hamburg's example. In daycare and all-day programs, daily physical activity, nutrition education, healthy and free communal meals and dental health programs are to be firmly established.

The SPD wants to keep the subjects politics and ethics unchanged and rejects letting students choose between ethics and religion. Students are to have more say starting in first grade. The platform argues that young people now meet opponents of democracy earlier, often through social media.

The subjects politics and ethics should stay as they are. Students should not choose between ethics and religion. Children should have more say from grade 1 on. This way they learn democracy.

Student councils and the weekly class council are to be strengthened. A required elective is to take up the topic of empathy. The SPD wants to measure how democratic schools are and again provide flexible funds for democracy projects in the bonus program. Education providers outside schools are to get reliable funding through the Demokratiefördergesetz (democracy promotion act). The state agency for civic education is to be attached to the parliament in the future.

The SPD wants to ban cell phones at all elementary schools, citing health and child protection. At the same time, a new framework curriculum is to anchor digital education in all subjects and grades.

Cell phones should be banned at elementary schools. This is meant to protect children. At the same time children should learn more about digital topics. These include social media and safety on the internet.

The new digital framework curriculum is to cover media literacy, handling social media and AI skills. Topics such as cybersecurity, cyberbullying, disinformation and risks from gaming are to appear as early as elementary school. The SPD wants to carry out the Digitalpakt Schule (federal-state school digitization program) without red tape and give schools their own IT budgets. A socially fair device-as-a-service model for students is to be developed, and school internet service is to be given priority.

The SPD wants to record teachers' working hours, reduce their workload and hire more non-teaching staff. Every school is to have at least one school social worker position. This is meant to let educators focus on their core tasks.

Teachers should be able to record their working hours. Schools get more staff for office work, IT and building care. Every school should have a social worker position. Teachers then have more time for teaching.

The time recording would cover lessons and other duties such as committee work, contact with parents and administration. The recent increase in required teaching hours for trainee teachers is to be reversed. Qualifications and work experience of teachers from abroad are to be recognized more easily, including through more flexible language requirements. Educational staff would continue to be assigned based on social indicators. A state program for school stations is to be phased in, and the Schools of Education are to be strengthened in teacher training.

The SPD wants to keep school construction at its current pace and focus more on renovating existing buildings. Funding is to stay public; it rejects partnerships with private investors in school construction.

Berlin should keep building and repairing many schools. Old school buildings should now be renovated more. The money should come from the state. Private companies should not finance schools for the state.

According to the platform, more than 50,000 school places have been created through new buildings and extensions since the drive began. The state-owned housing company HOWOGE is to be allowed to borrow more to finance school construction. Educational quality, climate resilience and accessibility are to remain the guiding principles. The rejection of public-private partnerships applies to places at both public and independent schools.

The SPD wants to strengthen vocational schools with their own development plan, better equipment and a state institute. All young people should reach a qualification and a next step. Career guidance is to begin as early as elementary school.

Vocational schools should get better. They get a plan, modern technology and enough teachers. A new institute should watch over quality. Children should learn about jobs as early as elementary school.

A state institute for vocational schools is to be set up within the Senate education department to steer quality and development. The eleventh compulsory school year is to be developed further, and the Integrierte Berufsausbildungsvorbereitung (integrated pre-vocational training) for young people without a diploma is to be strengthened. The youth employment agency and youth vocational assistance are also to be developed further. Career guidance teams are to grow, with special attention to students with special needs. Schools and businesses are to work together more closely to make dual vocational training more visible.

The SPD wants adult education options such as Volkshochschulen (adult education centers), libraries and second-chance schools to be low-cost or free. Literacy and basic education are to be strengthened. Better working conditions are to apply to people who work in adult education.

Adults should also be able to learn well. Courses should cost little or nothing. People should be able to learn to read and write better. Those who teach these courses should have good working conditions.

The Stiftung Grundbildung (basic education foundation) is to be adequately funded, and the districts' literacy alliances are to offer a wide range of programs. Alongside digital options, the SPD relies on places to learn close to home and wants to test outreach education for people with limited mobility. For staff, it plans a model of permanent employees, employee-like workers and freelancers, with a collective agreement modeled on public broadcasting. A citywide counseling network is to support women in career, education and employment.

The SPD wants to keep the existing university places in Berlin and fund higher education on a stable basis. Science buildings are to be renovated and newly built through a construction company financed by the state. The platform sees science as a driver of innovation and economic success.

Berlin should not cut university places. Universities should get money reliably. A new state company should build and repair university buildings. Berlin should attract good researchers from around the world.

University funding is to follow the model of the Pakt für Forschung und Innovation (federal-state pact for research and innovation) and be backed by a funded research strategy. The costs of the university construction company are not to be paid from budgets for studies, teaching, research and transfer. Top research and appointments are to be supported through the Einstein Foundation. Cooperation between institutions, such as in the Berlin University Alliance, is to be strengthened. Also planned is a joint library of universities and universities of applied sciences, with all sites and staff kept.

The SPD wants research results to reach companies and society more often. Uniform rules on intellectual property are meant to make spin-offs from universities simpler. Exchange between researchers and the public is also to grow.

The SPD wants ideas from research to be used. Researchers should be able to start a company more easily. Berlin should have the same rules for all universities. Scientists should also talk more with citizens.

The plan is a single Berlin-wide framework for intellectual property (IP) that eases start-ups from science and lets institutions share in their success. University transfer offices are to be strengthened. Transfer work is to count measurably when academic careers are assessed, and there are to be semesters off for founding a company or for transfer work. The SPD wants to support the JUNI Startup Factory and joint projects between science and business. Science communication formats such as the Long Night of the Sciences or Berlin Science Week are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to keep study at state universities free of tuition and to double the share of student housing. At the federal level it is pushing for BAföG (student aid) that does not depend on parents' income. The program argues that BAföG is too low for living in Berlin.

Studying at state universities should stay free. The SPD wants twice as much housing for students. BAföG is state money for students. It should no longer depend on the parents' income. The semester ticket should also stay cheap.

At the federal level, the SPD wants parent-independent BAföG in the form of a grant, rates that are regularly adjusted to inflation, and a housing allowance that varies by place of study. Training allowances and coverage of master craftsman fees are also to return. The Deutschland semester ticket is to stay affordable and later include rental bikes. The subsidy for the Studierendenwerk Berlin (student services organization) is to rise markedly in the next framework contract so that higher costs do not fall on students. For young people without an academic family background, central contact points and accessible digital services are planned.

The SPD wants to adapt degree programs more closely to students who work and to improve supervision. Academic continuing education is to become a public task of universities as well. The program cites demographic change and the upheavals caused by AI as reasons.

Many students work while they study. The SPD wants more study programs that fit this. Universities should also offer more further training. This is to become a task of the state. People with low pay should be able to learn more easily.

Part-time, hybrid and dual study programs are to be expanded. The SPD wants better student-to-staff ratios, more flexible teaching obligations and stronger university teaching training; the institutions responsible are to be evaluated systematically and developed further. Under state aid law, continuing education has so far been treated largely as a market activity, which the program considers insufficient. People in middle- and low-wage jobs in particular should not have to rely on private providers alone.

The SPD wants to create more permanent positions for academic staff. People with a doctorate are to be employed on permanent contracts as a rule. Through the Bundesrat it wants to reform the law on fixed-term contracts in academia.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The SPD wants more permanent jobs at universities. People with a doctorate should usually get a permanent job. The SPD also wants to change a federal law for this.

The Forum Gute Arbeit (Good Work Forum) is to continue. Researchers are to get career prospects earlier. The SPD wants to advance reform of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (the law on fixed-term academic contracts) in the Bundesrat, taking a Federal Constitutional Court ruling into account. Tenure-track professorships are to be expanded. The SPD also backs Humboldt University in setting up a chair of Alevi theology to train teachers and clergy.

The SPD wants to act against antisemitism, Islamism, racism and discrimination at universities and to strengthen prevention. At the same time, equality and diversity are to receive more support. The program stresses that academic freedom applies and democratic protest remains possible.

Jewish people should feel safe at universities. The SPD wants to act against hatred of Jews and against racism. Protest should still be possible at universities. There should be more places to file complaints. Disadvantaged students should get more help.

Universities are to be supported in acting, within their autonomy, against antisemitic or racist agitation. Anti-discrimination services and protection against abuse of power are to grow, along with adequate complaint structures. The Berlin equal opportunity program stays and gets a new funding line for diversity in professorships and leadership posts. Conditions are to improve for students with disabilities and those from non-academic families. For students with a refugee or migration background, the SPD wants to test flexible entry models with language and bridging courses, including longer BAföG eligibility.