What do the parties in Bavaria say on education?

The AfD wants to keep Bavaria's school system of Mittelschule, Realschule, Gymnasium and Förderschule (special-needs school) and apply the performance principle in all of them. Vocational training should gain more esteem, the Mittelschule should be strengthened and fewer children should move on to Gymnasium. It rejects interference by the federal government and the EU in education policy.

The AfD wants to keep the four types of school in Bavaria. Performance should count everywhere. The Mittelschule should prepare students better for job training. Fewer children should go to Gymnasium. Bavaria should decide on its own schools.

The AfD wants to create ways to obtain an education outside the conventional school system. Other forms of schooling and learning should be permitted if learning progress is demonstrated. The platform points to experiences from the COVID-19 period.

Children should also be allowed to learn outside regular school. They must show that they are learning enough. The AfD gives the experience of the COVID-19 period as the reason.

The AfD wants Bavaria's universities to focus support on STEM subjects and traditional degree programs and considers gender studies chairs unnecessary. It rejects quotas based on sex, gender identity or migration background. In the program's view, academic freedom is threatened by ideological influence.

The AfD wants more support for subjects like math, technology and science. It says professorships for gender studies are not needed. It is against quotas at universities. A quota is a fixed share of jobs for one group. Nobody should be treated worse for not using gender-inclusive language.

The AfD wants to preserve German as the language of scholarship at Bavarian universities and rejects degree programs taught only in English. At the same time, it acknowledges English as the global language of science and wants to promote foreign language skills.

The AfD wants universities to keep teaching and doing research in German. It is against degree programs only in English. It still sees English as important. Students should be able to learn foreign languages well.

The AfD wants to reduce universities' dependence on third-party funders and demands openness about projects paid for with externally raised money. The independence of research is to be protected.

Universities also get money from outside, for example from companies. This is called third-party funding. The AfD wants research to depend less on it. Citizens should be able to see what the money is for.

The AfD wants to restore the Diplom and Magister degrees and phase out bachelor's and master's programs. It justifies this with the strong reputation it says the German university system had before the Bologna reform.

The AfD wants the old degrees Diplom and Magister back. Bachelor's and master's degrees should end step by step. The state exam should stay. The AfD says the old system had a good name around the world.

The CSU wants to keep Bavaria's multi-track school system and rejects a single comprehensive school for all as well as federal interference in education policy. School subjects, class groups and grades are to stay. Children should know German before they start school.

Bavaria has different types of schools. The CSU wants to keep it that way. It does not want one common school for all children. Grades and school subjects should stay. Children should learn German before starting school.

The CSU wants to set up 8,000 additional positions in schools by 2028 and provide all students with tablets. Teachers at elementary and middle schools are to be paid at the A 13 grade across the board by 2027. Small elementary schools are to be kept.

The CSU wants 8,000 new jobs in schools. All students should get a tablet by 2028. Teachers at elementary and middle schools should earn more. Elementary schools should not close if parents want to keep them.

The CSU wants every child to learn to swim. To that end, municipalities are to get more help for their swimming pools, and children receive vouchers for a swimming course.

Every child should learn to swim. The CSU wants to give towns more money for swimming pools. Children get a voucher worth 50 euros for a swimming course.

The Free Voters want to keep Bavaria's three-track school system and all existing school locations. School buildings are to be renovated and new ones built where needed.

Bavaria has different types of schools. The Free Voters want to keep it that way. No school should close. Run-down schools should be fixed quickly.

The Free Voters want to make the A13 pay grade the starting salary for teachers at all school types and secure enough new teachers. Teachers are also to get permanent jobs and be supported by additional staff.

The Free Voters want more teachers for Bavaria. All teachers should earn the same at the start. They should get permanent jobs. Other helpers should also work in schools.

The Free Voters want to expand adult education and create a legal entitlement to educational leave. The program justifies this with a working world that is changing ever faster.

Work is changing fast. So adults should be able to keep learning. The Free Voters want to spend more money on this. There should be a right to educational leave. That is time off work for learning.

The Free Voters want to raise base funding for universities and change BAföG (federal student aid) so that more students get more money. Bavaria is to stay at the top in higher education and research.

The Free Voters want more money for universities. More students should get BAföG. BAföG is money from the state for studying. There should also be more affordable housing for students.

The Free Voters want to expand digital education from elementary school through university. Information and communication technology is to become a compulsory subject at secondary schools, while analog learning content is to remain alongside it.

Students should learn more about computers and the internet. At secondary schools this should be a required subject. Teachers should also learn it in their training. The state should help pay for devices.

The Free Voters want to make master craftsman training and further training free in Bavaria and largely remove costs from vocational education overall. The program regards vocational and academic education as equal in value.

People who want to become master craftsmen should not pay for it. The Free Voters say an apprenticeship is worth as much as a degree. Vocational schools should get better equipment. The state should promote apprenticeships.

The Greens want to anchor nutrition and ecology more firmly in daycare centers, schools and vocational training. A municipal garden and kitchen program is meant to introduce children to growing and cooking food, and a training drive is to make food trades more attractive. People who take discarded food out of the trash should not be punished.

Children should grow food and cook in daycare and school. There is a program for gardens and kitchens for this. Training for cooks, bakers and similar jobs should get better. Eco topics should matter more in training. People who save food from the trash get no penalty.

The Greens want to make training in the skilled trades more attractive: master craftsman courses would be free, and all schools would have two mandatory internships and trades project days from grade 7. Training content and vocational schools would be modernized.

The Greens want to strengthen the skilled trades. The course to become a master craftsman would be free. Students would do two internships from grade 7. Vocational schools would become more modern.

The Greens want full-time system administrators to look after IT at every school. This is meant to professionalize the technology and give teachers more time for their core tasks.

At schools, often nobody has the steady job of looking after the computers. The Greens want to hire experts for this. They maintain the technology and help teachers. Then teachers have more time for teaching.

The Greens want studying in Bavaria not to depend on background or money. They reject fees, want to reduce admission restrictions, and want to give the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) more money for dorms.

Everyone should be able to study in Bavaria, even with little money. The Greens are against fees for studying. They want more student dorms. Fewer subjects should have a grade cutoff. Students with worries should get advice more easily.

The Greens want to bring back the Verfasste Studierendenschaft (statutory student body) in Bavaria and organize universities more democratically. They reject the Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act in its current form and want to revise it.

Students should have more say at their university. The Greens want to bring back an official student body for this. All other German states have one. Half of the seats on committees should go to women. The university law should change.

The Greens want to remove barriers for people with disabilities in study and research. This includes accessible buildings and digital services, direct support for students, and more influence for disability officers.

People with disabilities should be able to study more easily. University buildings and websites should be accessible. Universities get more money for this. They should also provide sign language interpreters. Disability officers should be allowed to vote on committees.

The Greens want to clear the renovation backlog at Bavaria's universities with a targeted program that takes priority over new prestige buildings. A state program for energy retrofits and renewable energy is meant to help universities reach their self-set goal of climate neutrality by 2028.

Many university buildings in Bavaria are in bad shape. The Greens want to repair them first, before costly new buildings. The universities want to be climate-neutral by 2028. A state program would provide money for this. New buildings must be climate-neutral.

The Greens want to secure core funding for research and teaching in all subjects, instead of handing out more and more money only as time-limited project grants. Research policy is to become broader and focus on future challenges such as climate, energy and social cohesion.

Universities should get enough steady money for research and teaching. So far, much money only goes to single projects for a limited time. The Greens want to fund research in many fields. These include climate, energy and transport. All universities should report on their sustainability.

The Greens want to improve working conditions in research and teaching and curb chains of fixed-term contracts. They back a comprehensive reform of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (the law on fixed-term academic contracts), want to create additional permanent positions, and call for a collective agreement for student employees.

Many young researchers only have temporary contracts. The Greens want to create more permanent jobs at universities. The law on temporary contracts in academia should change. Students who work at the university should get a collective agreement. A collective agreement sets pay and working hours.

The Greens want to strengthen social work at all Bavarian schools and introduce teams drawn from different professions there. Child and youth services would get more university places, paid practical semesters, a digital pact and better funding for independent providers. The aim is for every child to receive the support needed for their development.

The Greens want more help for children at schools. Every school should have social work. Experts from different jobs would work together there. Youth services should also get more money and more trained staff.

The Greens want early language support for children who do not speak German at home and want to keep existing programs for this. At the same time, heritage languages would be promoted and accepted at secondary schools in place of the second foreign language.

Some children do not speak German at home. They should get early help learning German. The Greens also want to support the family's language. That language could replace the second foreign language at school.

The Greens want to equip every school with enough teaching, special-education and psychology staff. Step by step, a second educator would work in each classroom, starting in elementary schools and Mittelschulen (lower secondary schools).

All children should get the help they need at school. Schools should have more specialists. Bit by bit, a second educator should work in each class. This starts in elementary and lower secondary schools.

The Greens want to scrap the binding grade averages that decide which secondary school a child may attend; parents would decide after counseling. They also want to allow longer joint schooling and alternatives to numerical grades.

Today, grades in fourth grade decide a child's next school. The Greens want to end that. Parents should decide after getting advice. Children should be able to learn together for longer. Schools should be allowed to drop number grades.

The Greens want to offer high-quality all-day schooling to all pupils, not only in elementary school. Regional, organic school meals would be made affordable for every family through subsidies.

The Greens want all-day programs for all pupils. This should include older children too. School meals should be healthy and come from the region. The state should help pay so everyone can afford them.

The Greens want to provide every schoolchild in Bavaria with a digital device and keep it up to date. Media literacy and computer science would carry more weight in class so young people can assess information and recognize disinformation.

Every child in Bavaria should get a digital device for school. The devices should always be up to date. Children should learn to tell news from opinion. They should also learn more computer science.

The Greens want to require class councils and school parliaments at all schools and give them decision-making powers and a budget of their own. Civic education and history would be expanded in every grade, and ethics as a subject would be upgraded.

Pupils should help decide things at their school. Every school should have class councils and a school parliament. These get their own money. Teachers and parents should also have more say. There should be more lessons about politics.

The Greens want to counter the teacher shortage by paying elementary and Mittelschule teachers at the A13 salary grade and raising pay for trainee teachers. Teacher training would move to a bachelor's-master's system.

Bavaria does not have enough teachers. So the Greens want to pay more at elementary and lower secondary schools. Training should change too. Everyone learns together first and picks a school type later. Office staff should take work off teachers.

The Greens want to guarantee all young people in Bavaria a vocational training place. A statewide matching program would connect companies and applicants. Anyone still left without a place would get a binding offer at a training center run outside individual companies.

Every young person in Bavaria should get a training place. A program should bring companies and applicants together. Anyone who finds no place gets a firm offer. The training then takes place at a special training center. It ends with a recognized job qualification.

The Greens want to make it easier for people with disabilities to attend local daycare centers, mainstream schools, vocational training, continuing education and university. Every type of school would have special-needs expertise, and switching between special schools and mainstream schools would be possible in every grade.

Children with and without disabilities should be able to learn together. The Greens want to make this easier in daycare, school and college. Mixed daycare groups should be smaller and have more staff. Every kind of school should have special-needs experts. Children should be able to change schools in any grade.

The Greens want to amend the school funding law so that lunch at Bavarian schools is subsidized by the state and free of charge for families. This is meant to bring uniform standards and organic quotas and to give local organic farms new customers.

The Greens want good lunches at all schools. The state should pay toward them. Families should not pay a fee. There should also be organic food and plant-based food. This also helps organic farmers in Bavaria.

The Greens want to give daycare centers and schools more staff and money to support children with differing starting points in a more targeted way, especially with language. At the same time, democracy education and anti-discrimination work would be expanded and more teachers with an immigrant background hired.

Children should be able to learn German better in daycare and school. There should be more staff and more money for this. Parents should get advice in several languages. Schools should do more against racism. More teachers should have an immigrant background themselves.

The SPD wants a Bavarian continuing education law that entitles employees and apprentices to time off for job-related training. Training would additionally be financed through levy-based funds.

The SPD wants a new law on job training. Workers and apprentices should get time off for courses. This should be their right. Works councils should be allowed to propose courses. Shared funds should help pay for courses.

The SPD wants to guarantee every young person in Bavaria a vocational training place and pay for it through a levy on companies. Vocational education is to be free of charge up to the master craftsman level, as the party sees it as equal to academic degrees.

Every young person in Bavaria should get vocational training. The SPD wants to guarantee this. Companies pay into a shared fund for it. Training should cost nothing, up to the master craftsman level. There should be more dorms for apprentices.

The SPD wants to equip vocational schools better, recruit more teachers and expand school social work. Uniform rights are to apply to students in dual study programs. The party argues that practical and theoretical training are of equal value.

The SPD wants better vocational schools. They should get more money and more teachers. Students with another first language should get courses in job-related German. They should get more time in exams. Students in work-study programs should be paid fairly.

The SPD wants to introduce the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) as an additional school type alongside the existing ones so that children learn together longer. Until then, the transfer report card would be dropped; parents and teachers would decide on a child's school path in a mandatory meeting.

The SPD wants a new type of school, the Gemeinschaftsschule. All children learn together there. The other school types stay. The transfer report card after primary school should go away. Parents and teachers then talk together about the right school.

The SPD wants to cap classes at 20 children in the medium term and give schools additional specialist and administrative staff. Teacher training would be restructured, and all teachers would be paid at the A13 civil-service grade from the start of their careers.

The SPD wants smaller classes. A class should have 20 children at most. Schools should get more experts, such as school psychologists. All teachers should earn the same. Schools with many poor children should get more money.

The SPD wants education to be free of charge from daycare through to a master craftsman certificate or master's degree. Learning materials, including digital devices, would be free for students so that parents' income does not determine education.

The SPD wants education to cost nothing. This goes from daycare to university or master craftsman training. Books and tablets should also be free for students. Teachers should get work devices.

The SPD wants to create a legal right to a place at an integrated all-day school, including beyond primary school. All students would get a healthy breakfast and lunch at no cost. According to the program, the goal is fairer opportunities.

The SPD wants every child to have a right to a place at an all-day school. This also applies after primary school. All students get breakfast and lunch for free. All children should learn to swim.

The SPD wants to strengthen universities' core funding so that teaching and research depend less on third-party grants. Staffing structures would be reformed so that ongoing tasks are filled with permanent positions.

The SPD wants to give universities more steady money. Tasks that always exist should have permanent jobs. Young researchers should be able to plan better. There should be more dorm places for students and apprentices.

The SPD wants to introduce a statutory student body at Bavaria's universities and four-way parity, under which four university groups hold equal weight on committees. Women's representatives would get more powers, and studying would become more accessible.

The SPD wants more say for people at universities. Students should get their own representation set in law. All groups should have the same number of votes on committees. Women's representatives should get more rights. Victims of harassment should get permanent advice offices.

The SPD wants more civic education in class and a required visit to a memorial site or a place of democracy for every student. Civic education is to run from daycare into adulthood. The platform says this is meant to anchor democratic values and counter far-right tendencies.

The SPD wants more civic education in schools. Every student should visit a memorial site once. A memorial site remembers, for example, the victims of the Nazi era. Even children in daycare should learn about democracy. Adults should get courses too.

The SPD wants education in Bavaria to be free of fees regardless of citizenship and more strongly oriented toward Europe. English would be a focus throughout schooling, and every student would get at least one free trip abroad. A housing guarantee is planned for international students, researchers and teaching staff.

The SPD wants education in Bavaria to cost nothing. This should apply to everyone, no matter which country they come from. English should matter in every grade. Every school child should get one free week-long trip abroad.