SPD on education

Despite falling numbers of children, the SPD does not want to close any schools or daycare centers and wants to keep the freed-up money in the education system. Instead, a dense school network, smaller classes and renovated buildings are meant to raise quality.

There are fewer children in Saxony. The SPD still does not want to close any school or daycare center. The money should stay in education. Classes should get smaller. Buildings should be modernized.

The platform sees daycare centers and schools as a hub of villages and neighborhoods, and says short routes to school give children more time. Falling student numbers are also to be used to introduce a homeroom teacher period that eases teachers' workload. Music schools, adult education centers and universities are to stay within reach in the regions as well. Daycare centers, schools and universities are to be further renovated, modernized or newly built.

The SPD regards vocational and academic training as equal in value and wants to make it easier to move between the two. Besides a higher Meisterbonus, there is to be a comparable bonus for other advanced vocational qualifications and wider university access for people with vocational credentials.

The SPD says: An apprenticeship and a degree are worth the same. People who become master craftsmen get a bigger bonus. Technicians and certified business specialists should also get a bonus. People with job training should find it easier to go to university.

The new bonus is to apply to certified specialists, business administrators and technicians. The state program "Berufliche Aus- und Weiterbildung" (vocational training and continuing education) is to support vocational education. The Duale Hochschule Sachsen (Saxony's cooperative state university) is to act as a link between the two paths and keep its practice-integrated degree model. The platform sums up the goal by saying Saxony needs "masters and master craftsmen."

The SPD wants to secure classroom teaching through more staff and relief for teachers and rejects larger classes or more mandatory teaching hours. Teacher training is to be reorganized by a dedicated law and made more practical.

Saxony does not have enough teachers. The SPD wants more staff in schools. Classes should not get bigger. Teacher training should change. Students should work in schools earlier.

The three universities are to keep offering 2,400 places for teaching degrees. Course content and the Referendariat (post-degree classroom traineeship) are to be reviewed: more practice, less subject theory, a traineeship built into the degree and early paid work in schools. Student teachers are to serve as a second person in the classroom while still studying. School assistants and school social work are to be available everywhere within five years.

The SPD wants to help all young people earn a school diploma and a vocational qualification and to make it easier to obtain them later. Those who drop out of training or university are to receive advice and support in finding a new path.

The SPD wants all young people to finish with a diploma. People should also be able to earn one later. For example at an adult education center. People who drop out of training should get advice.

Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) are to be recognized as second-chance schools, and Produktionsschulen (work-based schools for young people) are to be funded by the state. Advice and information services are to grow, especially at youth employment agencies and student services organizations. Skills gained outside school and formal training are to be assessed and more easily credited toward qualifications. The platform speaks of a "right to detours."

The SPD wants to amend the school law soon and comprehensively and to revise and slim down timetables and curricula. Schools are to work more independently, get their own budgets and be supported by teams from different professions.

The SPD wants to change the school law. Curricula should contain less material. Schools should decide more for themselves and get their own money. Besides teachers, other professionals should work in schools too.

The party's own ideas are to be compared with expert proposals from the "Bildungsland Sachsen 2030" process. Less content is meant to free up room in the timetable and, given the teacher shortage, allow teachers to be deployed more effectively. The plan includes more independent work, project-based learning and internships. Students and parents are to have a greater say. The support system includes school social work, teaching assistants, inclusion aides, IT coordinators, administrative assistants, movement coaches and school health professionals.

The SPD backs keeping children together in school longer and wants to drop the Bildungsempfehlung (the formal recommendation on which secondary school track a child should attend). Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive schools) are to be easier to set up, including with three classes per grade.

Children should learn together in one school for longer. The SPD wants to drop the school-track recommendation. This is the advice on which school a child attends after primary school. Comprehensive schools should be easier to open. Everyone should finish school with a diploma.

According to the platform, schools should offer more hands-on learning and lead all young people to a diploma. Dropping the track recommendation is meant to avoid early breaks in a child's school career. Hurdles for comprehensive schools are to be lowered so that schools of this type with three classes per grade become possible. The SPD justifies this with the need for well-trained workers for the economic transition and also supports good early childhood education.

The SPD wants vocational and academic education to be treated as equals and plans a training fund financed by a levy. It is meant to support small businesses in training apprentices and help pay for joint and off-the-job training.

The SPD wants to strengthen job training. Companies should pay into a shared fund. Small companies get help from the fund to train young people. Vocational schools should become more modern. People who want to become master craftsmen should get more support.

Comprehensive schools and Gymnasien (academic high schools) are also to get career advisers for vocational orientation. The SPD wants a stable network of vocational schools, modernized vocational school centers and new ways to recruit vocational teachers. The training guarantee is to be implemented well and youth labor protection strengthened. For the Aufstiegs-BAföG (grants for advanced vocational training), the party seeks higher rates and access for part-time courses. Moving between vocational and academic paths is to become easier.

The SPD wants staff in nurseries, kindergartens, after-school care and home-based childcare to have more time for the children. To achieve this, a staffing reserve is to keep growing and a state institute for early childhood education is to be founded.

The SPD wants better daycare. Teachers should have more time for the children. For this, there should be more staff. A new institute will look after quality. Children should learn to speak better in daycare.

The staffing reserve is to grow step by step, with extra resources for special social needs and the transition to school. The training drive for educators continues, and career changers are to receive pedagogical training. A state institute is to bring together quality assurance that is currently run project by project. The state program for language education continues and gains daycare language specialists. A roadmap for inclusive daycare is also planned.

The SPD wants to expand all-day schools in which lessons, support and free time are spread across the whole day. Together with more Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive schools) and extra resources based on a social index, this is meant to make educational success depend less on background.

The SPD wants more all-day schools. There, learning and breaks alternate through the whole day. There should also be more comprehensive schools. Schools with many poor children get more money. This should give all children the same chances.

Elementary schools, after-school care, all-day programs and out-of-school learning sites are to merge more quickly, backed by multi-year grants and secured time for cooperation. The SPD wants the Startchancen program to become a permanent federal-state program, and school social work is to be strengthened. School network planning and youth services planning are to be linked. Social reporting data are to determine where extra resources go.

The SPD wants education to be free of charge from daycare through a master's degree or master craftsman qualification. Parental fees for daycare and fees for long-term students are to be dropped, and learning materials are to stay free.

The SPD wants education to cost nothing. Parents should no longer pay for daycare. People who study for a long time should not pay fees either. School books and other learning materials stay free.

The platform argues that education decides the future of each person and of society. Access to education therefore carries special weight. Freedom from fees is to cover the entire educational path, including master craftsman training.

The SPD wants to create 450 new permanent positions at universities and raise the share of permanent employment to more than 45 percent. Academic career paths are to become more predictable, and student employees are to get a collective agreement.

Many university staff only have short-term contracts. The SPD wants to create 450 new permanent jobs. More than 45 out of 100 jobs should have no end date. Student assistants should also get a union wage agreement.

According to the platform, permanent tasks should be done by permanent staff. The number of junior professorships with tenure track is to grow, and universities must draw up staff development plans. For doctoral positions, half of the post is to be reserved for the candidate's own qualification work, and positions take priority over scholarships. State graduate scholarships are to rise to 150 places and at least 1,650 euros a month. The SPD supports the TVStud collective agreement for student employees and will lobby at the federal level to end the ban on collective bargaining in academia. Students in dual programs are to receive a minimum pay they can live on and protections like those for apprentices.

The SPD wants to scrap fees for long-term students and for students from countries outside the EU. In its view, tuition-free study and modern student aid safeguard equal opportunity.

People who study for a very long time must pay fees in Saxony. Students from countries outside the EU may also have to pay fees. The SPD wants to abolish both fees. Studying should be free for everyone.

Besides abolishing the two types of fees, the orientation program for new students is to be expanded. The party wants to strengthen academic advising and career guidance. It treats study without fees as a right and links it to the goal of equal chances.

The SPD wants to guarantee universities stable base funding through a six-year agreement, growing by 3.5 percent each year. This is to be complemented by an investment strategy for buildings, grounds and large research equipment.

Universities should be able to plan with certainty. The SPD wants to promise them fixed money for six years. This money should grow by 3.5 percent every year. There should also be a plan for buildings and large research equipment.

The dialogue-based steering of universities is to be developed further, with more incentives in the target agreements. For buildings and large research equipment the party plans an investment strategy backed by funds, and universities may take on the role of building owner if they wish. More than 100,000 people are to keep studying in Saxony, with a focus on public-service fields such as medicine, nursing, teaching or social work, while small subjects are preserved too. In the SPD's view, public base funding secures academic freedom. State money is also to co-finance joint EU research projects.

The SPD wants to give the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) higher grants under a six-year agreement so that semester fees stay stable. It also plans further investment in student dormitories.

Student services run cafeterias, dormitories and counseling. The SPD wants to give them more money. The promise should last six years. That way student fees should not go up. There should also be more and better dormitories.

The platform describes what the student services organizations offer, from cafeterias and dormitories to student financing, culture and social counseling, as indispensable social infrastructure. The multi-year agreement is meant to provide planning certainty. By investing in dormitories, the party wants to renovate and newly build affordable housing for students.

The SPD wants rural schools to be treated more as a tool of regional development and to keep school sites open even with low student numbers. The Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) are to be strengthened as providers of adult education and given more tasks.

The SPD wants to keep schools in small towns. A local school is important for the community, the SPD says. Adult education centers should also become stronger. They should get more tasks.

The platform calls the local school an anchor for a community's development. It points to mixed-grade teaching, the Oberschule+ and the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive community school), which allow sites to be kept or newly opened despite few students. The SPD describes the adult education centers as a close-to-home network of continuing education for all ages. Their range of tasks is to be widened.

The SPD wants to keep spending heavily on school construction and on digital equipment for schools. It also wants to reorganize how responsibilities for schools are divided between the state and municipalities.

The SPD wants to keep spending a lot on school buildings. Schools should also get more computers and technology. Experts should look after the devices. The state and towns should split their school tasks in a new way.

Investment in school buildings is to continue at a high level. The SPD wants to review the split in responsibility for running schools and reform the division of tasks between the state and municipalities. For digitization, it wants further investment in devices and to recruit staff for IT administration and maintenance. The use of adaptive learning software is to be expanded.

The SPD wants children who grew up multilingual to be able to count their heritage language in place of a second foreign language. German Sign Language is also to be recognized as a foreign language.

Some children grow up with two languages. The SPD wants their family language to count as a second foreign language at school. German Sign Language should count as a foreign language too. The plan for teaching German as a second language should get better.

According to the platform, three languages are enough for the Abitur (university entrance diploma). Recognizing heritage languages is meant to acknowledge multilingualism from migration and also to value the Sorbian language. The SPD wants to evaluate and further develop Saxony's concept for integrating immigrants in schools. This covers prompt schooling close to home, special support needs and instruction in heritage languages.

The SPD wants to make education steadily more inclusive and provide more staff and material resources for it. Every school should be able to admit children from its neighborhood and support them according to their needs.

All children should be able to take part at school. This includes children with disabilities or special needs. The SPD wants to give more staff and materials for this. Every school should be able to take in children from the neighborhood.

Participation of all students is to be supported regardless of special needs or social or cultural background. The SPD wants to update the action plans for implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Staff and material resources for support are to grow. The schools' cooperation networks are to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to pass a teacher education act and gear training more toward classroom practice. The 2,400 university places for teacher training are to be kept.

The SPD wants a new law on how teachers are trained. Training should include more practice. There should still be 2,400 university places for future teachers. Further training for teachers should also get more money.

Course content and the Referendariat (post-degree teaching traineeship) are to be reviewed. The SPD's aim is more educational practice and less subject-specific theory, a traineeship built into the degree, early practical experience and the option of team teaching. The SPD wants to raise budgets for continuing training of principals, teachers and other educational staff.

The SPD wants to plan enough teaching positions to cover 104 percent of lessons. In addition, more assistants and support staff are meant to ease the load on teachers.

The SPD wants to plan more teaching jobs than lessons need. That creates a reserve. More other experts should work in schools too. For example, social workers and assistants. This should take pressure off teachers.

The forecast of teacher demand is to be updated regularly, and all necessary positions are to be kept available. The SPD wants to expand the support and assistance system with more positions and money. It names teaching assistants, inclusion aides, school social workers, IT coordinators and school health professionals. School budgets are also meant to help ease the load.

The SPD wants to expand civic education in schools and give better support to student and parent councils. According to the platform, having a say in everyday school life contributes to a good school climate.

Students should learn more about politics at school. They should also have more say. The SPD wants to give student councils and parent councils more support. Trips to memorial sites should keep getting money.

The concept "W wie Werte" (V for Values) is to be continued. Memorial site visits and the state service office for places of remembrance are to keep receiving funding. Student and parent councils are to get rooms, workspaces, materials and training, and class councils are meant to enable more participation. School budgets are to bring in outside partners, for example for democracy education, violence and addiction prevention, sex education and environmental education.

The SPD wants to separate supervision from school development organizationally and found a state institute for school development. According to the platform, schools should be able to work more autonomously.

The SPD wants to reorganize how schools are supervised. One office would oversee schools and recruit teachers. A new institute would advise and guide schools. Schools should be able to decide more for themselves.

The State Office for Schools and Education is to carry out supervision and handle teacher recruitment. The new state institute is to guide schools and share findings among education research, school practice and teacher training. Schools are to receive more funds as their own budget, and teachers, parents and students are to have a greater say. The SPD wants to give special support and more decision-making room to schools with innovative concepts.