What do the parties in Lower Saxony say on education?

The AfD wants to strengthen dual vocational training and expand it across the state to produce more hands-on skilled workers. A master craftsman or journeyman certificate would again be required for all self-employed trades.

The AfD wants to strengthen dual training. In dual training, people learn at a company and at a vocational school. There should be more offers in rural areas too. Anyone running their own trade business should need a master or journeyman certificate.

The AfD wants to return to the three-tier school system of Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium and to bring back Diplom and Magister degree programs. Schools and universities should focus more on achievement and, in the party's view, be free of ideology.

The AfD wants three separate types of school again. These are Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. Universities should offer the old Diplom degree again. Achievement should matter more in school.

The AfD considers the current inclusion of disabled children in mainstream schools in Lower Saxony a failure and wants to end it immediately. Instead, special-needs schools (Förderschulen) should be restored and expanded, and joint schooling should not be automatic.

Today many children with disabilities learn at regular schools. The AfD does not want to continue this in its current form. There should be more special-needs schools again. These are separate schools for children with disabilities.

The AfD wants all-day schools to be the exception. It sees them as a social policy tool that mainly promotes both parents working and, in its view, harms the family and child-appropriate upbringing.

The AfD wants only a few all-day schools. It says all-day school means more childcare, not more teaching. Children should have afternoons for family, clubs and friends.

The AfD wants to equip schools with modern technology but rejects digitalizing teaching itself. The teacher and classroom discussion should remain at the center.

Schools should get modern computers and software. Every classroom should have a digital board with internet. But lessons themselves should not become digital. The teacher stays the most important part.

The AfD wants newly arrived students without sufficient German to be taught separately in preparatory classes first. In the party's view, native students must not be held back in their schooling by immigration.

Newly arrived children who do not speak German should first go to separate classes. There they learn German. They join regular classes only after a test. Schools should also teach shared values.

The AfD wants to replace denominational religious education at state schools with an ethics class. That class should cover the world religions and give special weight to Christianity.

State schools should no longer teach religion by denomination. Instead, there should be ethics classes for everyone. Children learn about the major religions there. Christianity should get special attention.

The AfD calls for a headscarf ban at all public schools and for employees in public administration. It considers the headscarf incompatible with a German Leitkultur (guiding culture) that immigrants are expected to fit into.

The AfD wants to ban headscarves at public schools. This would apply to students and teachers. Staff in government offices should not wear them either. The AfD says the headscarf does not fit German culture.

The AfD wants schools to return to normal operations, with no masks and no closures. Learning gaps from the Covid period are to be closed through remedial classes, and regular lessons are to take priority over all other tasks.

The AfD wants normal lessons in schools. Children should not wear masks. Schools should not close again. There should be extra lessons in the afternoon. This way children can catch up on what they missed.

The AfD wants to end what it calls political indoctrination in schools. In its view, the governing parties use the school system as an ideological instrument of power, so that students no longer dare to speak their minds.

The AfD says teachers push political views on students. The party calls this indoctrination. That means pressing an opinion on someone. The AfD wants this to stop. Students should be able to say what they think.

The AfD wants to preserve and expand the vocational school system and offer as many students as possible a suitable training place. The program regards dual training, which combines a company and a vocational school, as a success model and a basis of prosperity.

The AfD wants to strengthen vocational schools. Every student should be able to get a training place. The party likes training in both a company and a school. Vocational schools should also offer courses for adults.

The AfD wants to expand teaching and research in math, computer science, natural sciences and technology and considers many chairs in the humanities, especially gender studies, dispensable. Political restrictions on research, for example on nuclear energy and genetic engineering, are to end.

The AfD wants more research in technology and science. It thinks many posts for gender research are not needed. Researchers should also work freely on nuclear energy and genetic engineering. The party says politics should not limit research.

The CDU wants to recruit 10,000 new early childhood educators by 2027 through a staffing and training drive. To do so, paid, practice-based training would be expanded and entry into the profession made easier.

Many daycare centers lack trained staff. The CDU wants 10,000 new educators by 2027. Training should be paid and include more hands-on work. People from other jobs should also be able to switch to daycare more easily.

The CDU wants to introduce a third professional per group in daycare centers. This would happen in stages by 2027 at the latest and improve the staff-to-child ratio.

A third trained person should work in each daycare group. That way more adults look after the children. The CDU wants to do this step by step by 2027. It should also make daycare jobs more attractive.

The CDU wants to bring back the Brückenjahr (bridge year) in the final year of daycare starting in 2024, to ease the transition to elementary school. In the medium term, this is meant to develop into a modern form of preschool.

The last daycare year should be a bridge year again. In it, children get ready for school. The CDU wants to start this in 2024. Later it should become a new kind of preschool.

The CDU plans an investment program for daycare quality and a "DigitalPakt Kita" (digital pact for daycare) to simplify administration and reporting. New buildings are also to be cheaper and faster to build, and new types of daycare easier to set up.

The CDU wants to put more money into good daycare. Digital tools should make office work in daycare easier. New daycare centers should be built faster and cheaper. Forest daycare and company daycare should also be easier to start.

The CDU promises teacher coverage of at least 100 percent statewide and calls this a teaching guarantee. To achieve it, 5,000 additional teachers are to be hired within five years.

The CDU wants as few canceled classes as possible. For that, there must be enough teachers. In five years, 5,000 extra teachers should be hired. This applies to all schools in the state.

The CDU wants to gradually raise starting salaries for all types of teachers to pay grade A13 over the legislative term. This is meant to reflect the length of their studies and the esteem for the profession in their pay.

Teachers start with different pay depending on the type of school. The CDU wants to change that. All should start at pay grade A13. This should happen step by step over five years.

The CDU wants to introduce a bonus for teachers in shortage subjects and underserved regions. Teachers are also to be freed from administrative work, in part through a new trained occupation called "Schulfachangestellte" (school administration specialist).

Some subjects and areas do not have enough teachers. Teachers who work there should get a bonus. That is extra money. Teachers should also have less office work. New school office specialists should do that work.

The CDU wants to significantly expand school social work and employ twice as many school psychologists as today. Actual demand is to be determined for this purpose.

Schools should have more social workers. The CDU also wants twice as many school psychologists. They help children with worries and problems. First the CDU wants to check how many are needed.

The CDU wants to run a pilot project testing how teacher training can include more practical work from the first semester on. In addition, a "Quereinstieg Plus" (lateral entry plus) program would let experienced professionals enter teaching through part-time study.

People who want to become teachers should practice in schools earlier. The CDU wants to test this first in a trial. People from other jobs should also be able to become teachers. They would study while working.

The CDU wants to identify learning gaps and emotional strain from the COVID period and address them with catch-up, mentoring and support programs. A new program is also meant to warn early when students are at risk of dropping out.

Many children learned less because of COVID. The CDU wants to find these gaps and close them. There should be tutoring and mentoring for this. There should also be help with emotional problems. A new program should stop young people from dropping out of school.

The CDU wants to gradually reduce class sizes, starting in elementary schools, and make reading, writing and arithmetic a priority. German language skills are to be supported early, including through language assessments for all four-year-olds.

Classes should have fewer children. This should start in elementary schools. Reading, writing and math should matter more. All children should take a language test at age four. Children who speak little German then get extra help.

The CDU wants to make computer science a compulsory subject sooner than planned and train more teachers for it. Economic knowledge, everyday life skills, consumer education and swimming lessons are also to get more weight in schools.

The CDU wants to make computer science a required subject sooner. There should be more teachers for it. Students should also learn more about business and everyday life. Every school should have a plan for swimming lessons.

The CDU wants to keep denominational religious education while expanding the subject Werte und Normen (values and norms) and Islamic religious education. Cooperation with the association Ditib is to be cut back sharply and later ended altogether because of political interference.

The CDU wants to keep religion classes in schools. The subject values and norms should get more room too. There should be more Islamic religion classes. But the CDU wants to stop working with the Turkish group Ditib.

The CDU wants digital technology to become a fixed part of teaching. The state is to provide vetted learning software centrally, equip teachers with devices and recognize tablets and laptops as learning materials that students can borrow.

The CDU wants more digital technology in schools. The state should buy good learning programs for all schools. Teachers should get their own devices. Students should be able to borrow tablets and laptops at low cost.

The CDU wants school authorities to set their own school structure based on parents' wishes and rejects what it sees as an ideological debate over structures. At the end of primary school there is to be a recommendation for the secondary track again, and Gymnasien (academic-track secondary schools) are to be guaranteed.

The CDU wants a recommendation after primary school again. It says which school fits the child. The Gymnasium schools should be safe from closing. Towns and counties should decide on their school types themselves.

The CDU wants to help municipalities meet the legal right to all-day care in primary schools from 2026 through a school construction drive. More outside education partners are to take part in all-day programs so that teachers can be used more for regular lessons.

From 2026, primary school children have a right to afternoon care. The CDU wants to help towns with this, also with money for school buildings. More music schools and art schools should join in the afternoon. That gives teachers more time for regular lessons.

The CDU wants to keep all Förderschulen (special-needs schools), develop them into inclusive competence centers and anchor the special schools for learning and for speech permanently in the school law. The party says inclusion should be guided by the child's well-being and leave parents a real choice between school types.

The CDU wants to keep all special-needs schools. These are schools for children who need extra help. New schools of this kind should be allowed too. Parents should be able to choose their child's school. All schools should get more experts for these children.

The CDU wants to make schools more autonomous and strengthen school heads. They are to be able to hire staff themselves and take on more responsibility for digitizing their school.

The CDU wants schools to decide more on their own. School heads should be able to hire teachers themselves. This should be possible all through the school year. There should be new training for school heads.

The CDU wants to recalculate state subsidies for private and church-run schools on the basis of their full costs. It sees these schools as an indispensable part of the school landscape and wants to include them more in support programs.

The CDU wants to support private and church schools. The state should work out anew how much money they get. They should also benefit more from support programs. Catholic schools should be allowed to take more non-Catholic children.

The CDU wants to embed career orientation in lessons as early as possible and create a dedicated anchor subject at all school types. The goal is above all to make dual vocational training better known and more attractive.

The CDU wants a new school subject on career orientation. All types of schools should have it. Students should learn about many jobs early on. There should also be vouchers for internships.

The CDU wants to simplify transitions between vocational training and higher education in both directions. The platform stresses that vocational and academic education are of equal value.

The CDU wants to make it easier to switch between job training and university. Master craftspeople should get into university more easily. People who drop out of university should find it easier to start job training. What they already learned should count.

The CDU wants to give vocational schools more money, more staff, and better digital equipment. By 2025 they are to become regional centers of excellence for vocational education with more autonomy.

The CDU wants to strengthen vocational schools. They should get more money, more staff and better digital equipment. The schools should decide more on their own. Fewer lessons should be canceled.

The CDU wants to create more university places, make degree programs more flexible and digital, and make it easier to take courses at other universities in the state. High-achieving school and university students are to get dedicated support programs.

The CDU wants more places at universities. Students should find it easier to take courses at other universities. Studying part-time should also get easier. Very gifted school and university students should get special support.

The CDU wants to create more student housing in university towns and back the Studentenwerke (student services organizations) in doing so. Semester fees and the semester transit pass are to be in reasonable proportion to their benefit.

The CDU wants more housing for students in university towns. The semester transit pass should not cost too much. There should be cheap tickets for students. Universities should get help with child care.

The CDU wants to expand language and basic education programs for adults. The platform cites as its motivation that ten percent of people in the state cannot read and write well enough to take part in society.

Many adults cannot read and write well. The CDU wants more learning programs for them. Young adults from immigrant families should also get language support. The programs should be easy to reach.

The CDU wants to scrap all school fees in vocational training and introduce training pay instead. This is meant to attract more people to these occupations and ease the shortage of skilled workers.

In some training programs, trainees have to pay school fees. The CDU wants to end these fees. Trainees there should get paid instead. This should lead more people to learn these jobs.

The CDU wants to create a Lower Saxony training bonus for low-income employees once the federal scheme ends. It also wants tax incentives for lifelong learning and more ways for adults to complete a school-leaving qualification later in life.

The CDU wants to support further training. People with low pay should get money from the state for it. There should also be tax benefits. Adults should find it easier to finish school later.

The CDU wants to change the state's higher education law so that universities with many successful spin-offs benefit financially. It also plans up to 50 additional professorships in key digital fields and easier moves between academia and business.

The CDU wants more new companies to come out of universities. Universities with many such companies should get more money. There should be up to 50 new professor jobs for digital topics. Experts should move more easily between research and business.

The CDU wants to support universities in the federal-state Excellence Strategy competition and have at least one "University of Excellence" in the state. Stable core funding and a new university development agreement are meant to secure the universities.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state's universities. At least one should win the title "University of Excellence." This is an award for very good research. Universities should get reliable funding.

The CDU wants to open up new sources of money for universities beyond the state budget, such as funds fed by donations, bequests, and contributions from alumni. It also commits to university autonomy and wants to give universities more room to make their own decisions.

The CDU wants to set up a fund for universities. Donations and inherited money should go into this fund. Former students should also be able to give money to their university. Universities should also be able to decide more things on their own.

The CDU wants to improve the digital equipment of universities, drawing on federal programs as well. This includes more digital workspaces on campus and better-equipped libraries.

The CDU wants better digital equipment at universities. Students should get more digital workspaces on campus. Libraries should become more digital too. Online degree programs should get as much money as other programs.

The CDU wants to renovate and modernize university buildings through a dedicated construction program. The aim is to keep the space and technology for research and teaching up to date.

The CDU wants to renew university buildings. There should be a special building program for this. Research and teaching should have modern rooms and technology. Sometimes private companies should take part in the building work.

The CDU wants to introduce students and doctoral candidates to starting a business early on and make studies more flexible for founders. It also focuses on STEM subjects, which it sees as a field of the future, and wants to attract more women to them.

The CDU wants more students to start a company. There should be courses on starting a business during studies. Students who start a company should be able to take a break or study part-time. The CDU also wants to strengthen STEM subjects. STEM means science, technology, engineering, and math.

The CDU wants to amend Lower Saxony's university law so that universities, universities of applied sciences, and non-university institutes can more easily do research together. It sees exchange among these institutions as the basis of successful research in the state.

The CDU wants to change the law for universities. Universities, applied-science universities, and other research institutes should do more research together. The state should give special support to such alliances. The CDU also wants to keep basic research strong.

The CDU wants to expand capacity in medical degree programs because many regions lack doctors. It plans up to 200 additional places in human medicine, 50 in dentistry and 20 in pharmacy.

Lower Saxony does not have enough doctors. So the CDU wants more university places for medicine. There should be up to 200 new places. Dentistry and pharmacy should get more places too.

The Greens want to expand and strengthen integrated comprehensive schools so children learn together for longer. In the long run, the tracked school system is to be overcome, because in the party's view early sorting ties educational chances to family background.

Children should go to school together for longer. So the Greens want more comprehensive schools. Smaller comprehensive schools should also be allowed. This helps mostly in rural areas. Later, the split into three school types should end.

The Greens aim to make learning materials free in Lower Saxony, especially digital ones. Tablets and laptops are to count as learning materials because, in the party's view, education should be free from the start.

School materials should be free in Lower Saxony. This is most important for digital media. Tablets and laptops should count as learning materials. Money from school support clubs should only pay for extras.

The Greens want to do away with repeating a grade and with forced transfers to a lower school type, because in the party's view these experiences harm a child's further education. Gymnasien and Realschulen (academic and intermediate secondary schools) should keep their students through the end of lower secondary level.

Children should no longer have to repeat a grade. They should also not be forced to change schools. Gymnasien and Realschulen should support their students until they finish. Comprehensive schools should start with smaller classes. Fewer young people should leave school without a diploma.

The Greens want to give schools more educational freedom and change bureaucratic rules accordingly. Model schools are to decide more on their own, and in the longer term schools should be allowed to work without grades up to eighth grade.

Schools should decide more for themselves. The Greens want to set up model schools for this. Rules should help schools, not slow them down. Later, schools should be able to go without grades up to grade 8. Longer internships should also count.

The Greens want to further develop inclusive schools, which are to replace Förderschulen (special-needs schools) in the long run, and stand by the timetable for phasing those out. The guideline is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; truancy is also to drop markedly.

All children should go to school together. This includes children with disabilities. Special-needs schools should no longer exist later on. New schools must be built without barriers. Fewer children should skip school or drop out.

The Greens want to stop treating truancy by teenagers as an administrative offense. The aim, according to the platform, is to motivate young people to return to school rather than punish them.

Some teenagers do not go to school. Today they can be fined for this. The Greens want to end that. They would rather help teenagers want to go back to school.

The Greens want to support schools that practice inclusion with more staff, better equipment and clear legal rules. Basic special-education staffing would be introduced at secondary schools, and teams drawn from different professions would be expanded.

In inclusive schools, children with and without disabilities learn together. The Greens want to give these schools more staff. Special-education teachers should work there permanently. Therapists and social workers should help too.

The Greens want schools to promote and recognize students' first and family languages. An overall plan for multilingualism would be developed for all school types and put into practice step by step.

Many children speak a language other than German at home. The Greens want schools to support these languages. There should be a plan for all schools. Language support should also grow.

The Greens want to turn all schools into compulsory all-day schools, running four days a week from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The school day would combine learning, physical activity, creative phases and programs by outside partners rather than mere afternoon supervision.

The Greens want all schools to be all-day schools. Children would be there four days a week from 8 to 3. Learning, sports and creative time would take turns. Clubs and music schools would take part.

The Greens want to launch a state program for school meals that gives municipalities financial support. Every child at every school should be able to get a warm, healthy meal, especially children from low-income households.

The Greens want good food at all schools. Every child should be able to get a warm meal. This includes children from poor families. The state would give towns and cities money for this.

The Greens want to use a Niedersachsenfonds (Lower Saxony investment fund) to pay for energy retrofits and modernization of school buildings, easing the burden on municipalities. The platform describes many schools as run-down and not accessible, and says municipalities cannot cover the need alone.

Many school buildings are old and in bad shape. The Greens want to fix and modernize them. The buildings should also use less energy. The state would help towns and cities with money.

The Greens want money from the Digitalpakt (the federal-state school digitalization fund) to reach schools faster and want schools to get better support with digital tools. Digital tools should be embedded in teaching and serve as a means, not an end in themselves.

The Greens want schools to be more digital. Money for this should reach schools faster. Experts should look after the computers and networks. Children and teachers should learn to use media safely.

The Greens want to make education for sustainable development and global learning a fixed part of curricula in daycare centers and all types of schools. The platform treats both as cross-cutting topics in which future challenges are addressed and solutions worked out.

Children should learn about sustainability in daycare and school. Sustainability means living so the planet stays healthy later too. The Greens want this written firmly into the curricula. Animal welfare is part of it.

The Greens want teachers at primary, lower secondary and Oberschule schools to be paid, as a rule, at civil-service grade A13, and want to improve working conditions in schools. Schools would also be relieved of administrative work through additional staff.

Primary school teachers often earn less than other teachers. The Greens want them to earn the same. Work at schools should become easier. More staff should take over the office work.

The Greens want to recruit enough teachers for all schools and thereby improve classroom coverage. To do so, they would reassess demand, train more teachers and special-education teachers, and prepare career changers better.

Many schools do not have enough teachers. The Greens want to check exactly how many are missing. Then more people should be trained for the job. People from other jobs should also be better prepared to teach.

The Greens want to reform teacher training so that it is organized by grade levels rather than by school types. This is meant to prepare teachers better for the growing demands of the profession.

Today teachers train for one type of school, such as the Gymnasium. The Greens want to change that. Teachers would train for certain grade levels instead. This should prepare them better for the job.

The Greens want to make dual vocational training (combined company and school training) more attractive to secure skilled workers. They plan a skilled-labor initiative with the chambers of commerce and the skilled trades, plus better conditions for trainees in transport, housing and training quality.

The Greens want more young people to choose job training in a company. There are not enough skilled workers. Trainees should get a cheap ticket for buses and trains. There should be dorms for trainees. A new office should check whether training is good.

The Greens want master craftsman training in the skilled trades to be free of charge. They argue it is unequal that a master's degree at a university carries no fees while this training does.

The Greens want master craftsman training to be free. Today it costs a lot of money. A master's degree at a university has no fees. The Greens think this is unfair.

The Greens want to modernize vocational schools, equip them digitally and develop them into centers for training and continuing education. To address the teacher shortage, they rely on career changers, better pay for practical-skills teachers and more university places.

The Greens want to make vocational schools more modern. The schools should get better technology. They do not have enough teachers. So people from trades and industry should teach there too. Teachers for practical skills should get more pay.

The Greens want to write inclusion at vocational schools into the state school law. Joint classes are to be expanded across all types of vocational schools, with the staff and funding required.

The Greens want to put inclusion at vocational schools into law. Inclusion means: people with and without disabilities learn together. There should be more staff and money for this. Teachers should get extra training.

The Greens want to give universities reliable, needs-based core funding and reduce their dependence on third-party grants. This is meant to provide planning certainty; the platform rejects the cuts made by the outgoing state government.

The Greens want to give universities more steady money from the state. Universities should depend less on outside grants. Outside grants are funds for single projects, for example. This helps universities plan better.

The Greens want tuition-free study and therefore want to scrap the fees charged to long-term students. In their view, tuition fees are a social barrier; attending university should not depend on parents' income.

The Greens want university without fees. People who study for a very long time must pay fees today. The Greens want to end these fees. Studying should not depend on parents' money.

The Greens want to make it easier to move between vocational training and university and to expand dual study programs. Trainees should be able to earn a university degree alongside their vocational qualification.

The Greens want to connect job training and university better. Trainees should find it easier to study too. There should be more dual study programs. Dual means: you learn in a company and at a university. Universities of applied sciences should be made stronger.

The Greens want to push at the federal level for student financing that makes university possible regardless of income. In the platform's view, today's BAföG (federal student aid) does not deliver equal educational opportunity. Part-time students should also be able to receive it.

The Greens want to change BAföG. BAföG is money from the state for students. Part-time students should get it too. Everyone should be able to study, no matter how much money their family has.

The Greens want to strengthen research from basic science to applied projects, especially where it concerns the climate-friendly transformation. Additional professorships for climate protection are to be created. Results should reach practical use more quickly.

The Greens want to strengthen research. Research on the climate matters most to them. There should be new professors for climate protection. New ideas should reach everyday use faster.

The Greens want to give students and staff at universities more rights to take part in decisions. The platform argues that universities depend on a democratic culture and working academic self-governance.

The Greens want more say at universities. Students and staff should help decide more things. Doctoral students should have a say too. University committees should become stronger.

The Greens want the state's universities to be more closely connected across Europe and the world, and want to remove obstacles to study and research abroad. Legal rules are to be changed so that studying digitally at several locations becomes easier.

The Greens want universities to work more with other countries. Students should be able to go abroad more easily. People should also be able to study online at several places. The rules should be changed for that.

The Greens want to expand adult education and raise the budget for continuing education to one percent of the total education budget. They argue that changes in work and society make more funding necessary.

Adults should be able to keep learning too. The Greens want to spend more money on this. One percent of the education money should go to adult learning. There should also be more online courses.

The Greens want to expand programs for basic education, literacy and catching up on school diplomas, and make them free of charge in the future. In the platform's view, high participation fees deter people.

Some adults cannot read and write well. Others want to finish school later in life. The Greens want more courses for them. The courses should cost nothing.

The Greens want to recruit more teachers and early childhood educators with a migration background and expand native-language instruction. Colonial history and critical perspectives on racism are to become a fixed part of the curriculum. A state program is meant to promote a culture of diversity.

The Greens want more teachers and daycare staff with a migration background. There should be more classes in children's native languages. Schools should teach about colonial history and racism. A state program should support diversity.

The Greens want to introduce a required school subject called "Religions and Worldviews" that is tied to no denomination and grounded in religious studies. Denominational schools are to become, in dialogue with the religious communities, schools open to children of every faith.

The Greens want a new school subject for all children. It is called Religions and Worldviews. It does not belong to any one church. Schools tied to one faith should open up to all children.

The Greens want to give the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) more money and expand it. The platform sees it as playing a key role because disinformation threatens public debate. Other civic education providers are also to receive better funding.

The state agency for civic education explains politics to people. The Greens want to give it more money. Schools should also teach more about democracy. Teachers should get extra training for this.

The SPD wants to invest in education. It plans funding for a third staff member in daycare groups, a right to all-day schooling, free digital learning materials and higher pay for teachers.

The SPD wants to spend more money on education. Daycare groups should get a third staff member. All school children should have a right to all-day school. Digital learning materials should be free. All teachers should get better pay.

The SPD favors a right to vocational training and wants to expand youth employment agencies so that all school leavers are reached. School-based training is to become free of charge, and more young people are to take up dual training, including in the skilled trades.

Every young person should be able to get job training. Special advice offices should help everyone after school. Training at schools should cost nothing. Schools should tell students more about training in companies. Skilled trades should get more money for training.

The SPD favors a right to continuing education and wants a training strategy for Lower Saxony that responds to economic transformation. Vocational schools are to become continuing education centers as well, and university places in computer science and robotics are to be expanded.

The world of work is changing a lot. So people should be able to keep learning in their jobs. The SPD wants a right to this. Vocational schools should also offer courses for working people. There should be more university places for computer science.

The SPD wants to offer every child a nursery and daycare spot close to home and expand capacity according to need. Quality is to improve mainly through a third staff member in each group. The platform treats daycare centers as educational institutions that create equal starting chances.

The SPD wants more spots in nurseries and daycare. Every child should get a spot close to home. Each group should have a third staff member. Daycare centers should also stay open longer.

The SPD wants to recruit more daycare staff through a "Niedersachsenplan 2.0" and increase the number of training places. Daycare work is to be opened to other professions and career changers, and staff are to be recruited from abroad.

Daycare centers lack trained staff. The SPD wants to train more people. People from other jobs should also be able to work in daycare. More men should work there. Staff should also come from other countries.

The SPD wants to improve conditions for inclusion at all types of schools and bring more special-education and social-work staff into schools. According to the platform, the goal is more participation and fairer educational opportunities for all children.

The SPD wants all children to be able to learn together. This is called inclusion. More specialists should come to schools for this. Children who need support should get more help.

The SPD wants to develop elementary schools into all-day schools according to parents' needs, meeting the legal entitlement that takes effect in 2026. At the same time, reading, writing and math in elementary school are to be strengthened.

The SPD wants more all-day elementary schools. No child has to attend one. But every child should get a spot if the parents want it. Children should also learn to read, write and do math better.

The SPD wants to give every student a personal tablet and aims for free digital learning materials. It justifies this with equal opportunity: not every family can afford a device.

The SPD wants to give every student a tablet. In grades 1 and 2, children use devices owned by the school. From grade 3, every child gets their own device. This should give all children the same chances.

The SPD wants to expand democracy and peace education at all schools and give students more say. Student councils are to be possible as early as elementary school, and every school is to get its own democracy budget.

The SPD wants children to have more say at school. Even elementary school students should be able to elect representatives. Every school should get money for democracy projects. The students decide how to use this money.

The SPD wants to give all school types equal status and make it easier to found Gesamtschulen (comprehensive schools). In its view, the comprehensive school is an equal part of the regular public school system and supports all children best.

The SPD wants to treat all types of schools equally. It should be easier to start new comprehensive schools. In a comprehensive school, children with different goals learn together. The SPD thinks this school is especially good for all children.

The SPD wants to launch a pact for vocational education and an investment package for digital equipment at vocational schools. It regards vocational and academic education as equal in value and wants to prepare schools for a digitized working world.

The SPD wants to strengthen vocational schools. They should get money for modern digital technology. This includes 3D printers and robots, for example. For the SPD, job training is worth just as much as a college degree.

The SPD wants to pay all teachers at grade A13 or E13 regardless of school type and raise salaries step by step to get there. It argues that all teachers are equally important for students' success.

Teachers at different types of schools earn different amounts. The SPD wants to change that. All teachers should get the same pay grade. It is called A13 or E13. Pay should rise step by step.

The SPD wants to fundamentally reform teacher training, ease teachers' workload through a new working-time regulation and simplify career changes into teaching. This is meant to make the state a more attractive employer and secure enough staff.

The SPD wants to redesign how teachers are trained. College programs should include more hands-on practice. Teachers should have a lighter workload. People from other jobs should be able to become teachers more easily.

The SPD wants to bring additional educational specialists into schools. Special-needs teaching and school social work are to be available at every school. Teachers are also expected to take part in regular training.

The SPD wants more specialists in schools. These include social workers and special-needs teachers. Teachers should take one training course every year. Other school staff should get better working conditions.

The SPD wants to make Lower Saxony a state for science and research. Universities are to keep planning security and get more professorships and modernized buildings. Research and business are to be linked more closely at the regional level.

The SPD wants to strengthen the state's universities. There should be more professors. The buildings should be modernized. Universities should be able to plan with certainty. Research and companies should work together more closely.

The SPD wants to improve working conditions in academia. Fixed-term contracts without objective justification are to drop significantly, student employees are to get a collective agreement, and mandatory internships are to be paid at the minimum wage.

Many people at universities only have temporary contracts. The SPD wants far fewer of these. Students who work at a university should get a collective wage agreement. Required internships should be paid the minimum wage.

The SPD wants to abolish the fees charged to long-term students. It argues that many students have to work on the side and therefore take longer to finish their degrees.

People who study for a very long time must pay fees in Lower Saxony. The SPD wants to end these fees. Many students have to work on the side. So they need more time to finish.

The SPD wants to raise the number of clusters of excellence in Lower Saxony beyond the current six and expand further research areas. It argues that each cluster can give rise to a new industry of the future in the state.

The SPD wants more top research in Lower Saxony. It wants more clusters of excellence. These are large research groups at universities. The SPD hopes new industries will grow from them.

The SPD wants to renovate all of the state's universities and invest in buildings, staff and digital equipment. This is to be financed through a university development company. In addition, an innovation fund is to support flexible and digital forms of study.

The SPD wants to renovate all universities in the state. It wants to spend money on buildings, staff and digital technology. A new company is to pay for this. A fund is to support new ways of studying, such as distance learning.

The SPD wants to make access to higher education fairer, because by its account children of academics are far more likely to study. Universities of applied sciences are to receive the unrestricted right to award doctorates, and students from non-EU countries are to get a tolerated residence status for the duration of their studies.

The SPD wants more people to be able to study. Children from families without degrees should have good chances too. Universities of applied sciences should be allowed to award doctorates. Students from far-away countries should be allowed to stay while they study.

The SPD wants to secure adult and continuing education permanently and recognize it as the fourth pillar of the education system. The adult education law is to be adapted to digital formats, and the state agency for civic education is to be strengthened.

People learn all their lives. The SPD wants secure funding for adult education. The law on it should fit digital courses. The state agency for civic education should grow.