SPD on education

The SPD wants every young person to receive a suitable vocational training offer, even without a school diploma. Career guidance through the state program BRAFO would be extended to all secondary schools.

The SPD wants every young person to get an offer for job training. This should also apply to young people without a school diploma. Students should learn about jobs early. This should happen at all secondary schools.

According to the program, Saxony-Anhalt should remain a strong training state, and fewer training contracts should end early. BRAFO would continue, be developed further and in the future also run at Gymnasien (academic-track high schools). Young people with interrupted schooling would be supported through entry-level qualification and assisted training. Youth employment agencies (Jugendberufsagenturen) would keep receiving funding and be developed as central contact points.

The SPD wants daycare centers and elementary schools to shape children's transition together. The platform sees early support as the basis for language, social development and later success in learning.

Education already starts in daycare. The SPD wants daycare centers and elementary schools to work together firmly. Children should be examined earlier before they start school. They should get more help with language.

The plan includes binding cooperation between the two institutions, earlier and coordinated school entry examinations, and more language support. This is meant to spot support needs in time. For quality in daycare, the platform names good working conditions and enough staff; training and recruiting skilled staff remains a core task.

The SPD wants a comprehensive program to make sure classes take place reliably. In elementary school, reading, writing and math are to get more time. Long-term education monitoring is meant to show where schools need support.

The SPD wants fewer canceled classes. It plans a large program for this. Elementary schools should have more time for reading and math. The state should check regularly how well children learn.

According to the platform, schools should get planning certainty, enough staff and room for their own teaching decisions. Elementary schools are to have more hours for math, reading, reading aloud, practice and review, plus more first- and second-language offerings where needed. Long-term education monitoring is to collect comparable data on teaching quality and student performance, starting in elementary school. The findings are to feed into targeted support for schools. Administrative structures are to be consolidated.

In the medium term, the SPD wants only two types of secondary school: the Gymnasium (academic track) and the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school). The aim is for every school-leaving certificate to be attainable everywhere in the state.

The SPD wants to change the school system. After elementary school there should be only two kinds of school. These are the Gymnasium and the comprehensive school. Then all children can earn any diploma anywhere.

The platform sets the goal of a school structure in which every certificate is accessible to everyone in every location. To get there, the secondary system is to converge on the Gymnasium and the Gemeinschaftsschule in the medium term. At the end of elementary school, parents are to keep receiving advice and a recommendation on the school track. Under the platform, the choice of school type stays with the parents.

The SPD plans a state school construction program to make school buildings accessible and modern. Rural school sites are to be kept even where student numbers decline.

The SPD wants to rebuild and modernize schools. The state should start a building program for this. Schools should become accessible for everyone. Schools in the countryside should stay open.

For rural sites, the platform relies on flexible models and solutions tailored to the individual school. The construction program is meant to deliver accessibility and new room concepts for learning, teaching, socializing and quiet time. Because of hotter summers, shading and cooling are planned for classrooms, schoolyards and gyms.

The SPD wants to keep university-based teacher training with 1,200 study places and make it more practice-oriented. Career changers entering teaching are to get better support and pay. The party also seeks a new working-time model for teachers.

The SPD wants to keep training many teachers. There will still be 1,200 study places. People who switch from another job should get good help and fair pay. Older teachers should have to teach fewer hours.

Dual study programs and practical components are to grow, and the post-university training phase is to be developed further. Career changers are to be able to move up a pay grade after proving themselves. Further training, extra qualifications and work experience are to be recognized, and training for guidance teachers is to restart. Older teachers are to get reduced teaching hours again. A pilot project is to record teachers' working time to show the load from teaching, preparation and follow-up.

The SPD wants to secure school social work permanently with state funds and raise the funding substantially. Schools are to work with teams from different professions to support students' learning.

The SPD wants to pay for school social work for good. The money should come from the state. There should also be more money than today. Experts from many jobs should work together at schools.

If EU funding ends, the state is to pay for school social work and its network structures permanently from August 1, 2028. It is to stay with independent nonprofit providers and offer advice and mediation independently of the school. The planned multi-professional teams include school social workers, school psychologists, teaching and special-needs staff, and personnel for administration and digital equipment.

The SPD wants to back joint learning of children with and without special needs with more staff and counseling. Special-needs schools are to remain where they are needed. Learning materials, including digital devices, are to be free so that education does not depend on parents' income.

Children with and without disabilities should be able to learn together. There should be more teacher hours and help for this. Special schools stay where they are needed. School materials and devices like tablets should cost nothing.

Parents of children with special needs are to get independent advice on inclusive classes before school enrollment. Places in inclusive classes are to count double. Special-needs schools are to offer all-day programs on a binding basis and more routes to the first school-leaving certificate, including through cooperation classes. Schools in socially difficult settings are to receive extra materials and staff. Free learning materials are to cover digital devices as well.

The SPD wants to preserve the network of vocational schools and widen career and study guidance at all school types. Young people without a diploma are to get into training more easily. The platform treats vocational education as equal in value to academic education.

The SPD wants to keep the vocational schools in the state. All schools should inform more about jobs and college. Young people without a diploma should find training more easily. Job training should count as much as a degree.

Internships, partnerships with companies and guidance programs are meant to help with career choices. Practice-based alternatives to the pre-vocational year are to grow, and the Produktives Lernen (productive learning) program is to continue reliably. Training programs are to be secured and trainees' mobility supported. The platform sees master-craftsman and further-training paths, up to taking over a business, as central to securing skilled workers. Adult education, basic education and literacy programs are to be reliably funded.

The SPD rejects tuition fees and does not want international students to bear a one-sided financial burden either. Universities are to gain stability through reliable agreements and adequate core funding. Student services organizations are to be strengthened.

The SPD wants no fees for college. Students from abroad should not pay extra either. Universities should get enough money from the state. Student services should get more help, for example for cheap housing.

Student services organizations are to secure affordable housing, counseling and social infrastructure. The platform commits to university autonomy in research and teaching and to the Excellence Initiative. Funding programs for research, innovation, transfer and early-career researchers are to continue, and academic careers are to become predictable. Permanent professorships in gender studies are to be expanded, including the professorship for gender-sensitive medicine in Magdeburg. The SPD also calls for an initiative by the conference of state education ministers to make school certificates comparable across states.

The SPD wants to keep the statewide daycare network even as the number of children falls and leave the existing care entitlement untouched. The Kita STABIL program would continue beyond 2028, and staffing ratios would improve step by step. In the long term, daycare should be free of charge.

The SPD wants to keep all daycare centers in the state. Children should still be able to get up to ten hours of care a day. There should be more staff for the children. Later, parents should not pay for daycare anymore. Old daycare buildings should be renovated.

Kita STABIL provides additional staffing funds and is meant above all to secure centers in rural areas. The SPD supports expanding flexible opening hours, including early and late hours. Daycare centers facing particular social challenges would get extra help, and language education would be delivered by multiprofessional teams. In the short term, relief for parents with several children would be kept, and an investment program for renovating daycare centers is planned. The transition to elementary school would be organized jointly on a binding basis and cooperation between elementary schools and after-school centers strengthened; the entitlement to all-day care must not be restricted in the process.