SPD on education

The SPD wants the state to cover the costs of master craftsman (Meister) training that remain after Meister-BAföG and other aid. In addition, further training and career changes are to be possible at any time, and universities are to open up to people with vocational qualifications.

The SPD wants master craftsman training to be free. The state should pay the remaining costs. People should be able to learn something new later in life. Universities should be more open to people with job training.

Together with the skilled trades, barriers to entering master craftsman training are to be reduced. The SPD wants to secure further-training offers with chambers, unions, adult education centers, vocational colleges and the employment agency. Universities are to offer more part-time continuing education. For publicly oriented further education, a yearly budget increase of two percent is to be written into law. The development allowance and innovation fund are to be evaluated and, if successful, made permanent and better funded.

The SPD wants to guarantee every young person in the state an apprenticeship place. Companies that do not train are to bear the costs, while companies that do train receive support. Young people without a diploma or a training place are to be caught by additional programs.

The SPD wants a guarantee for training places. Every young person should get an apprenticeship. Companies that do not train should pay for this. Companies that train get help. Those who leave school without a diploma should get new chances.

As a first step, the program names backup funding for training outside companies, with the aim of moving into a company later, modeled on Austria. The transition program "Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss" (no diploma without a next step) is to be strengthened. Production schools, where young people can catch up on diplomas and gain practical experience, are to be revived and funded long-term. A nonprofit state-owned company is to act as a training alliance in regions where none exists.

With its "Gute Berufskollegs 2030" program, the SPD wants to renovate, modernize and digitally equip all vocational colleges. To recruit more teachers, more places to study are to be created and working conditions improved.

The SPD wants to renew all vocational colleges. These are schools for job training. They should get modern technology and enough staff. More universities should train teachers for vocational colleges.

Vocational colleges are to be well equipped with technology and staff and become transformation centers for new occupations. Teacher training for vocational colleges is to be offered at more locations, including universities of applied sciences. More practice-oriented course content is meant to lower the dropout rate. Schools are to be able to set up a skilled-trades track in the upper secondary level, and the Bachelor Professional is to be expanded. A change to compulsory vocational schooling is meant to support the integration of young people with an immigrant background.

The SPD wants apprentices to be treated the same as university students. This includes a cheaper apprentice transit ticket with better service, removing hidden training costs, and funding accessible dormitories for apprentices.

The SPD wants apprentices to be as well off as students. The transit ticket for apprentices should be cheaper and better. Hidden costs of training should go away. There should be more dorms for apprentices.

The apprentice ticket is to cost less and offer more, so that apprentices are as mobile within the state as students. The SPD wants to eliminate hidden costs of training. Construction of accessible apprentice dormitories is to be subsidized. Information campaigns are to give parents and teachers more knowledge about new occupations and opportunities in the training market.

The SPD wants to give every child a right to an education guide (Bildungslotse) from birth. This person would advise and accompany children and young people along their educational path and help prevent school dropouts early on.

Every child should be able to get an education guide. This is a person who supports children with learning and school. The guide gives advice. The guide should also help stop young people from dropping out of school.

The education guides are to be based at the municipal level and introduced everywhere locally. They are meant to help children and young people reach the goals they set for themselves. Another task is to spot the risk of dropping out early and prevent it. According to the platform, the entitlement is to apply to every child.

The SPD wants to make the school entry phase more flexible. Whether a child starts school earlier or later should no longer depend on the cutoff date alone but also on the assessment of parents and professionals.

Today a fixed date mostly decides when a child starts school. The SPD wants to change that. Parents, doctors and educators should have a say. A child should also be able to start school later.

The assessments of parents, pediatricians, daycare educators and, where relevant, psychologists are to carry more weight. If the conditions are met, a later school start is to be possible. The platform justifies this by pointing out that every child develops differently.

The SPD wants to prepare for the legal right to an all-day school place starting in 2026 and pass an all-day school act with binding minimum standards. All-day programs are to count as education and be free for families during core hours.

From 2026, children have a right to an all-day place in elementary school. The SPD wants a law with fixed rules for this. The rules cover staff, rooms, activities and lunch. All-day school should be free during core hours.

The platform cites estimates that up to 200,000 additional places including rooms and staff are needed and calls for considerably higher investment. The design is to be worked out in dialogue with municipalities, providers, schools, staff, parents and students. The SPD wants to end the separation between school and the open all-day program. For staff, it plans a skilled-worker requirement with further training for existing personnel, permanent contracts, full-time positions and time for preparation and follow-up. Cooperation with sports and cultural clubs is to become standard.

The SPD wants to give educational institutions in socially difficult areas more staff and money. A social index would distribute funds according to local conditions; as a first step, 1,000 schools are to receive additional resources.

Some schools and daycare centers are in areas with many problems. The SPD wants to give them more money and staff. A social index should show where help is needed. At first, 1,000 schools should get more.

Where children's living and learning conditions are unstable, institutions are to get more skilled staff and multi-professional teams. The social index is meant to reflect children's real lives. The SPD links this to the goal that schools keep the children they admit rather than transferring them to a lower school type. It favors longer shared learning and points to comprehensive schools as contributing to equal opportunity. It sees written descriptions of skills alongside grades as a contribution to a supportive learning culture.

The SPD wants to give every child a free library card until the end of their school years. Children should have access to books and digital media regardless of their parents' finances.

Every child should get a library card. The card costs nothing. It is valid until the end of school. This way all children can get books and digital media.

The platform justifies the card by saying that access to knowledge should not depend on a family's financial situation. Access to clubs should also be possible for children without financial barriers. The SPD sees library visits and club involvement as strengthening children.

The SPD wants to end canceled lessons through a staffing drive and bring more multi-professional teams into schools. All teachers are to receive the same starting salary, and the number of university places for teaching and related professions is to rise sharply.

Lessons are often canceled at schools. So the SPD wants to hire more staff. All teachers should earn the same when they start. There should be many more university places for future teachers.

Besides teachers, the teams are to include professionals from school social work, special education, school psychology, child care, nursing and therapy, among others. School social work is to be secured permanently. The SPD wants to expand university places for teaching, special education and social pedagogy and adjust admission requirements. Work experience of career changers and vocational qualifications are to be recognized more, for example for workshop teachers. Training and continuing education are to cover topics such as diversity, anti-discrimination, digitalization and consumer protection; vocational colleges and universities are to shape the drive together.

The SPD wants inclusion to be part of every school and plans a pedagogical center staffed with specialists at each one. In addition, every school district is to get a rapid support group for acute cases. The platform bases this on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which it says must be upheld.

Children with disabilities should be welcome at every school. The SPD wants a center with experts at each school. The experts help the teachers. Each school district should also get a group for quick help.

The center is to pool general and special-needs teaching expertise and to support and advise class teachers, subject teachers and special educators. It is not meant to be a parallel structure but part of a single staff made up of several professions. It coordinates work with school psychologists, therapists and youth services and offers extra programs and time-out options, including for conflicts or behavioral problems. A rapid support group in each school district is to give families and schools binding help in acute situations. These support systems are to be developed together with teachers, parents, researchers, doctors and therapists.

The SPD wants to set up an education commission of experts to review both what is taught and how education is funded. The split of costs between the state and municipalities is to be clear and binding. A special program for building and renovating schools is to help where the need exists.

The SPD wants a group of experts on education. The group looks at what children should learn. It also looks at who pays for schools. The state and the towns should have clear rules. There should be a special program for new and repaired schools.

The commission is to work out which content and skills a digitalized world of life and work requires. In the SPD's view, current responsibilities are opaque and slow down solutions, so the tangle of funding streams is to be sorted out. Funding should be sufficient for quality, equipment, building upkeep and new construction, in wealthy and poorer municipalities alike. The SPD also plans a potential assessment to gauge children's talents and support them in a targeted way. Protective structures are to be set up for students and teachers who experience discrimination.

The SPD wants to provide more money for digital infrastructure and equipment in daycare centers and schools. IT specialists are to maintain the technology so that teachers are relieved and can focus on teaching media literacy. The basics of information technology are to be taught in all types of schools.

Daycare centers and schools should get better digital technology. The SPD wants to spend more money on this. Computer experts should take care of the technology. Teachers then have more time for teaching. All schools should teach the basics of computer technology.

Having IT specialists look after the technology is meant to take work off teachers. Teachers are to concentrate on enabling children to use digital media in a reflective, creative and responsible way. The training budget per teacher is to rise. In addition, students' digital skills are to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to expand the state program "Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss" (no graduation without a next step) and introduce a guarantee of a vocational training place in North Rhine-Westphalia. Career guidance and hands-on teaching are to get more room in lower secondary school. The goal is that no one leaves school without a next step.

All young people should have training or another next step after school. The SPD wants to guarantee a training place. Schools should offer more practical lessons. Students should get to know jobs earlier.

Schools are to prepare students early and equally for academic and skilled-trade careers. The SPD wants the lower and intermediate secondary diplomas to be worth more again and to allow solid career planning. Practical content in lower secondary education is to increase at all types of schools. Career guidance offered at vocational colleges is to start already in lower secondary school. Long-term internships are to be strengthened and expanded depending on each student's starting point.

The SPD wants to strengthen universities and universities of applied sciences as the core of the research system and to promote the arrival of further non-university research institutes. Applied research in particular is to get more funding and more room. This is meant to help the state compete for researchers.

The SPD wants to strengthen research in the state. Universities should get better conditions. New research institutes should come to the state. Professors at universities of applied sciences should have to teach less. Then they have more time for research.

The platform treats basic and applied research as equally important. At universities of applied sciences, teaching loads are to fall, the Promotionskolleg NRW (doctoral college) is to get reliable support, and research funds are to be raised together with the federal government. The Johannes Rau Research Association is to receive more state funding and less red tape. Cooperation among universities, such as the University Alliance Ruhr, and links with cities and regions are to be supported further. The platform names gender equity and diversity as marks of quality in research.

The SPD wants academic staff who hold a doctorate to be employed on permanent contracts as a rule. Doctoral candidates and student assistants are to get better contract and pay conditions. The platform argues that permanent tasks require permanent positions.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The SPD wants to change that. People with a doctorate should usually get a permanent job. Students who work at the university should also get better contracts.

The SPD wants to push for reliable core funding of universities and for new permanent positions below the level of professor. Contracts for doctoral candidates are to run as long as the doctorate is expected to take, and full-time work is to be paid in full. Student assistants at universities are to be covered by the states' collective bargaining agreement as a rule and get permanent contracts when they do ongoing tasks. Student assistant councils, as staff representation, are to become mandatory rather than optional.

The SPD wants to fund the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) so that they can do their job and semester fees can fall. The state is also to invest in building and renovating student housing. In the platform's view, fewer money worries lead to more success in education.

Student services run cafeterias, dorms and counseling. The SPD wants to give them more money. Then the fees for students can go down. The state should also build and repair student dorms.

The focus is on affordable campus dining, childcare and psychosocial support for students. The platform notes that costs for digital equipment and rising living costs in university towns also burden students. Affordable housing is to come from state investment in student residences. On BAföG (federal student aid), the SPD points to agreements in the federal coalition meant to allow studying without fear for one's livelihood.

The SPD wants to keep university study free of tuition and open universities to young people from families with little money. A state program is to support young women academics, and a research network is to study social inequality. The party wants access to academia not to depend on social background.

Studying should stay free of tuition. Young people from poor families should also be able to study. The SPD wants a special program to support women in research. Researchers should study why inequality exists.

Besides money and housing, there is to be non-financial support, especially for first-generation students, new students with a migration background and women. The platform notes that three out of four professorships are held by men and only 8.1 percent of top positions by women. According to the platform, two-thirds of people in top positions come from the top 3.5 percent of society. For that reason, classism and racism in academia are to get more attention. An interdisciplinary research network on social inequality and social cohesion is to be founded.

The SPD wants the four status groups at universities to be equally represented on all university bodies. The platform argues that universities get better when everyone shapes them together.

Universities have four groups. These are professors, academic staff, technical and office staff, and students. The SPD wants all four groups to have an equal say. Each group should have the same number of seats on the committees.

Viertelparität (quarter parity) means that each of the four groups gets one quarter of the seats. The groups are professors, academic staff, technical and administrative employees, and students. The rule is to apply to all university bodies. The SPD calls this the model of the democratic university.

The SPD rejects mandatory attendance and a maximum length of study. Students should be able to shape their studies themselves, especially those with children, care duties or chronic illness. Digital equipment, digital administration and early certification of acquired skills are meant to help.

Students live very different lives. Some have children or are ill. So the SPD does not want required attendance. It also does not want a fixed time limit for studying. Universities should have better digital equipment.

In the SPD's view, such rules make it harder to graduate because they ignore students' circumstances. The plan includes adequate digital infrastructure, fully digitalized administration and support for data-driven research in all fields. Teaching and learning concepts for the digital skills of students and staff are to be funded. Skills gained during study are to be certified as early as possible to allow fair transitions into other education paths after a change of subject or dropping out. This is to be anchored in the European or German Qualifications Framework.

The SPD wants to renovate university buildings, modernize them for energy efficiency and make them accessible. Beyond that, campus development is to receive lasting support because teaching is changing and needs new kinds of space.

Many university buildings are old. The SPD wants to repair them. The buildings should use less energy. People with disabilities should be able to get everywhere. The campus should be a good place to learn, work and live.

The platform bases the need on teaching becoming more interdisciplinary and more practice-oriented. The campus is to be an urban place for learning, working and living, well integrated into the cityscape, city infrastructure and transport network. The SPD wants to tackle this with pilot projects using comprehensive action plans and new ways of financing.

The SPD wants to push for a new National Education Council. This permanent body is to work out shared goals and measures for the German education system, independently of the Kultusministerkonferenz (the standing conference of state education ministers).

The SPD wants an education council for all of Germany. People from practice and from research work together there. They think about shared goals for schools and education. They make their results public.

The council is to bring together people from practice and research. It is to meet regularly and not depend on the Kultusministerkonferenz, the body of the states' education ministers. It is to publish its goals and measures.

The SPD wants civic education anchored from daycare through school to adult education and plans to bring back the school subject of social sciences. The state agency for civic education would get more resources, and every young person should visit a memorial site once.

Children and adults should learn more about politics. This should start in daycare. The school subject social sciences should come back. The state agency for civic education should get more money. Every young person should visit a memorial site once.

Politics classes should less often be taught by teachers without training in the subject. Funding rules would be changed so that projects for young people from age 14 can receive support, and the annual democracy report would continue. More support for political participation by people with disabilities and information in easy-to-read language are also planned. Memorial sites would keep receiving funding, including the expansion of the 'Stalag 326' memorial. International youth work, especially exchanges with Israel, would be strengthened.