SPD on education

The SPD wants to strengthen dual vocational training, which combines on-the-job training with vocational school. It wants to ensure that trainees pay nothing for their training and are paid fairly.

In dual training, people learn at a company and at a vocational school. The SPD wants to strengthen this training. Training should cost nothing. Trainees should get fair pay.

The platform points out that Germany's dual training system is seen internationally as a model. From this the SPD concludes that it should be strengthened. It wants to work toward training that is free of charge and fairly paid.

The SPD wants to gradually improve staffing ratios in child daycare and recruit more skilled workers. To do so, new training places are to be created, training shortened and career changers given easier entry. Daycare law is to become simpler, with fewer rules.

The SPD wants more staff for daycare centers. There should be 500 new training places. Training should take 4 years instead of 5. Daycare teachers should be allowed to work full time. There should be fewer rules for daycare centers.

The duties of daycare directors are to count more in staffing calculations, leaving more time for planning, child protection and work with parents. The SPD wants to stop mandatory part-time work for daycare teachers. Plans include 500 places in practice-integrated training, better conditions for the voluntary social year in daycare, and administrative and technical staff to ease the load. Training for daycare teachers is to be cut from five to four years in coordination with the federal government and other states. Language development programs are to continue and inclusion in daycare is to advance. The legal framework is to be reformed, with fewer rules and clear responsibilities.

The SPD wants to address the teacher shortage with more training, qualified career changers and the return of retired teachers. University places at both teacher training sites are to keep growing, and the dual teaching degree is to be expanded.

The SPD wants more teachers for Brandenburg. There should be more university places. People from other jobs should find it easier to become teachers. Older teachers should be able to keep teaching after they retire.

The dual teaching degree modeled on BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, in which students work in schools early on and are paid, is to be expanded. A nationwide advertising campaign is meant to attract teachers to the state. For career changers, hurdles such as studying a second subject are to be removed, with appropriate pay and no loss of training quality. Following the 63+ program, further offers are to retain older teachers, for example through extra earnings alongside their pension and flexible arrangements. The rural teacher scholarship awards about 40 scholarships a year to students who commit to teaching at a rural school in need. Democracy education and education for sustainable development are to carry more weight in teacher training and continuing education.

The SPD wants to do more to promote reading, writing and math in elementary schools and introduce more binding curricula. Schools are to get administrative positions and school social work, and schools with particular needs are to receive more staff and money based on a social index.

The SPD wants more lessons in German and math in elementary schools. Curricula should become more alike everywhere. Every school should have a school social worker position. Schools with many children in difficult situations should get more help.

Alongside the daily reading block (Leseband), a math block (Rechenband) is to be introduced and teacher training geared toward it. More binding curricula are meant to ensure comparable achievement levels and make changing schools easier. Administrative positions are to gradually relieve all schools of bureaucracy. Staffing is to follow social indicators more flexibly, and the school budget is to keep growing. A new state institute for quality assurance and quality development is to pool training offers, steer them centrally and bring them to the regions.

The SPD wants to continue the municipal investment program for education and speed up school construction by allowing approval of standardized building types. Schools are to receive more uniform devices and software, and the use of AI in class is to be defined.

The SPD wants schools to be built faster. For this, there should be ready-made building designs that can be reused. Schools should get more computers and software. All students should be able to use a program for learning languages.

The "Kommunales Investitionsprogramm Bildung" (municipal investment program for education) is to keep supporting municipalities with school buildings. Digital and analog learning are to go together; this includes uniform devices, software and secured maintenance contracts. The SPD wants to define how AI applications can be used in class. A statewide license for language-learning software is to be purchased for all students at schools and vocational schools.

The SPD wants to continue joint learning for children with and without special educational needs. In addition, young people without a next step lined up are to get more support at Oberstufenzentren (vocational school centers), and schools are to prepare students better for practical life matters.

The SPD wants children with and without disabilities to learn together. Young people without a training place should get more help. Schools should teach more about everyday life, such as rental contracts. Brandenburg should train its own vocational school teachers again.

The vocational school tracks Grundbildung and Grundbildung-Plus are to be reorganized and prepare students for an apprenticeship in a hands-on way, with mandatory internships. The Oberstufenzentren are to bring their expertise into career guidance at general schools. The program names rental and employment contracts as examples of practical life matters. Brandenburg is to offer training for vocational school teachers again, also open to career changers.

The SPD wants to increase the universities' core funding by 5 million euros each year. This is meant to give them planning security. It also wants to keep supporting universities with new buildings and renovations.

The SPD wants to give universities more money. Each year, 5 million euros should be added. This helps universities plan ahead. The state also helps with building and repairs.

The universities' core budgets would grow by a further 5 million euros every year. The program justifies this with the role universities play in training skilled workers and supporting the economy. For construction and renovation, universities are to get broad flexibility, including new kinds of partnerships with private companies. Research institutes should cooperate more closely with universities and advise policymakers.

The SPD wants to establish a state-run university medical center in Cottbus. It is meant to strengthen Brandenburg as a research location and improve medical care in the Lausitz region. The Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg (Brandenburg Medical School) would also continue to receive support.

Cottbus should get a state-run university medical center. Future doctors will study there. Research will happen there too. The SPD wants this to improve care in the Lausitz region.

A center combining patient care, teaching and research is to be created in the Lausitz region. The region is to serve as a model for new approaches to health care, including outpatient care, developed together with everyone involved. The SPD also wants to keep funding the Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg because, in the program's view, it helps secure the supply of doctors.

The SPD wants to expand and connect science parks and fund new ones so that research results reach practical use. Small and medium-sized businesses should get easier access to knowledge from universities. Climate, energy and environmental research is also to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to expand places for research and new ideas. These include science parks in Potsdam, Cottbus and Wildau. Small companies should get knowledge from universities more easily. Research on climate and energy should grow too.

The program names the Potsdam Science Park in Golm, the Lausitz Science Park in Cottbus and the Wildau university of applied sciences. These sites are to be linked, and new ones added. The SPD also wants this to support spin-offs and start-ups. Small and medium-sized firms should find it easier to tap into university knowledge. Research on climate, energy and the environment is to be strengthened because, according to the program, Brandenburg leads on the energy transition and the effects of climate change are especially visible there.

The SPD wants to significantly expand civic and democracy education in schools. Students and parents are to be supported in using their participation rights, because in the program's view a strong democracy needs good civic education.

The SPD wants more democracy education in schools. Students and parents should be able to have a say more easily. Democracy projects should get more money. The "newspaper in school" offer should return, this time in digital form.

The subjects Politische Bildung (civics) and Lebensgestaltung-Ethik-Religionskunde (life skills, ethics and religious studies) are to be linked more closely to teach democratic skills. Offerings from the state agency for civic education and the regional offices for education, integration and democracy are to be used more and accompanied by teacher training. School and out-of-school projects are to get more funding so that more students are reached. A digital learning offer called "Zeitung in der Schule" is also planned, and communication among those involved is to improve.