What do the parties in Rhineland-Palatinate say on education?

The AfD wants to strengthen dual vocational training because training positions are going unfilled. Every school diploma should qualify graduates for an apprenticeship, and vocational schools should be better equipped. Technical high schools would also be established.

The AfD wants to strengthen job training. Every school diploma should be enough to start training. Students should get better at math and reading. Vocational schools should get better equipment.

The AfD wants a school system with three separate school types, including a new one with a technical and practical focus, and rejects a single comprehensive school. Requirements are to rise at all school types so that diplomas suffice for vocational training or university without extra help.

The AfD wants three different kinds of schools. One new kind should teach technical and practical skills. Schools should demand more. There should be one uniform exam for the Mittlere Reife, a mid-level diploma.

The AfD wants children admitted to regular classes only once they know enough German. More school kindergartens with language support are to be set up for this. The platform also links better education to less immigration.

Children should learn German first. Only then do they join the normal class. For this the AfD wants more school kindergartens. The AfD also wants less immigration so classes get smaller.

The AfD wants to keep and strengthen Förderschulen (special-needs schools) for children with disabilities. Mainstream schools with disabled students should decide for themselves which subjects are taught jointly and which separately.

The AfD wants to keep special-needs schools and make them stronger. These are schools for children with disabilities. Regular schools should decide for themselves. They may teach children together or apart.

The AfD wants a tough approach to violence in schools. Crimes are always to be reported, and teachers are to be legally protected and have their authority strengthened.

The AfD does not want to accept violence in schools. Schools should report every crime. Teachers should get more protection. Victims should matter more than offenders.

The AfD wants digital devices used in class only where they bring a benefit. Elementary schools are to do without tablets.

The AfD wants computers in schools only when they help. Elementary schools should have no tablets. Computers should not replace teachers. Children's data should be protected.

The AfD wants to review existing sex education programs and give parents a say in the content. Schools should also be allowed to practice rituals such as raising flags and singing together.

The AfD wants to check lessons about sexuality. Parents should know the content and have a say. Schools should be allowed to keep shared customs. Examples are raising flags and singing German songs.

The AfD wants to give the state's universities money so they can support companies founded out of academic work. The platform argues that innovation and entrepreneurship get too little support there today, leaving potential unused.

The AfD wants to support start-ups at universities. A start-up is a new company that can grow fast. Universities would get money and staff for this. The AfD says too little is done today.

The AfD wants to give universities more stable core funding and reduce their dependence on third-party grants. The platform argues that this dependence endangers freedom of research and teaching. The party also opposes what it calls cancel culture at universities.

The AfD wants to give universities more fixed money. Researchers should write fewer grant applications. They should decide for themselves what to study. The AfD also wants everyone at universities to speak freely.

The AfD wants to raise the number of medical school places in the state from 500 to 750 within five years and to 1,000 in the long run. This is meant to end the doctor shortage, which the platform attributes to the age structure of the medical profession.

The AfD wants more places to study medicine. In five years there should be 750 instead of 500. Later there should be 1,000. This should make sure there are enough doctors again.

The CDU wants to make the last year of daycare (Kita) compulsory for all children and run it as a preschool year. A mandatory language assessment at age four and a half is meant to identify children who need support early. The goal is that no child starts school without the language and social skills needed.

The CDU wants all children to attend the last year of daycare. There they get ready for school. At age four and a half, every child takes a language test. Children who struggle with language then get help.

The CDU promises a statewide guarantee for elementary schools: classes every weekday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with no cancellations. The focus is to be on reading, writing and arithmetic. This comes with a free lunch and homework done at school.

The CDU wants a guarantee for elementary schools. Classes run every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. They should not be canceled. Every child gets a free lunch. Children do their homework at school.

The CDU wants to pay elementary school teachers at the A 13 civil-service grade and bring back regular promotions at secondary and vocational schools. Staffing of at least 105 percent of teaching needs is meant to prevent canceled classes. This is intended to make the profession more attractive and stop teachers from leaving for other states.

The CDU wants to pay elementary school teachers more. Other teachers should get regular promotions again. There should be more teaching positions so classes are not canceled. The job should become more attractive for young people.

The CDU wants no tolerance for violence, threats or disrespect in schools and relies on disciplinary measures and emergency plans. A state task force is to come to schools quickly when acute problems arise. Teachers are to get backing from their employer in crisis situations.

The CDU does not want to accept violence in schools. There should be clear rules and emergency plans. A state team should help quickly when there are problems. The state should stand behind teachers.

The CDU announces an investment drive for school buildings and wants fiber-optic connections and stable Wi-Fi in all educational institutions. All teachers and all students from grade 8 on are to have a digital device. In the party's view, schools should become inviting, safe and digital places to learn.

The CDU wants to repair and modernize schools. All schools should get fast internet and Wi-Fi. Teachers get a digital device. Students get one from grade 8 on.

The CDU rejects a single comprehensive school and wants to preserve and strengthen the multi-track school system. The Realschule plus (a middle-track secondary school) is to be upgraded with its own support program. At Gymnasien and integrated comprehensive schools, the "winter Abitur" is to end and the full nine-year track (G9) is to apply everywhere.

The CDU wants to keep different types of schools. It is against one school for everyone. The Realschule plus should get more support. The final school exam should again come after nine full years of Gymnasium.

The CDU wants binding performance standards, transparent exams and clear grades. Repeating a grade is to remain possible, and the party aims for centralized final exams. It justifies this with the values of achievement, responsibility and cohesion.

The CDU wants clear grades in school. Students can still be held back a year. The party would like the same final exams for everyone. At the national school sports games, there should be certificates everywhere again.

The CDU wants every student to visit a former concentration camp or a memorial site at least once during their school years. Civic education, a culture of remembrance and action against antisemitism are to be a firm part of everyday school life.

The CDU wants a required visit for all students. They should see a concentration camp memorial once. This is a place that remembers the crimes of the Nazis. Schools should also teach about democracy and against hatred of Jews.

The CDU wants to keep and strengthen special-needs schools and special-needs daycare centers. In its view, inclusion should be guided by the child's well-being so that each child attends the school that suits them. Children suspected of needing special support are to be tested again before starting school.

The CDU wants to keep special-needs schools and daycare centers. These are places for children who need extra help. These children should be tested before they start school. Then parents can choose the right school.

The CDU wants vocational training to carry the same standing as a university degree. To that end, master craftsman (Meister) training is to become free, and career orientation in schools is to grow from grade 7 with two more mandatory internships. Vocational schools are to be modernized.

The CDU wants to make master craftsman training free. From grade 7 on, there should be two more required internships. On a "Day of the Skilled Trades," businesses present themselves in schools. Vocational schools should get more modern equipment.

The CDU wants to fund research and teaching better, cut red tape at universities and give them more independence. A long-term construction and renovation program is meant to clear the repair backlog. The aim is for Rhineland-Palatinate to again rank among Germany's leading science locations.

The CDU wants to give universities more money and more freedom. Buildings and labs should be repaired. There should be more places to study medicine. Students and trainees should no longer pay the second-home tax.

The CDU wants to ban private cell phone use in schools to improve concentration, social interaction and a calm learning environment. At the same time, media literacy is to be taught at all ages. Schools decide for themselves on the educational use of devices in class.

The CDU wants to ban private cell phones in schools. Children should be able to concentrate better. Schools may still use phones for learning in class. Children should also learn to spot fake news online.

The CDU wants to keep special-needs schools while expanding inclusion in mainstream schools. People with disabilities are to experience participation in school, work, culture, sports and politics as a matter of course.

Special-needs schools are schools for children who need extra support. The CDU wants to keep these schools. At the same time, more children with disabilities should be able to learn at regular schools. People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere.

The Greens want to permanently embed education for sustainable development from daycare through adult education. People active in nature, environmental and climate protection would get long-term funding. The state's environmental education office would become a statewide networking hub.

The Greens want everyone to learn about sustainability. Sustainability means living in a way that does not harm nature. This should be taught in daycare, schools and adult classes. People who work for the environment should get funding for a long time.

The Greens want to give the state's universities reliable core funding and strengthen basic research. Universities are also meant to lead on climate protection, and students are to get more say.

The Greens want to give universities enough money. Universities should protect the climate. Solar panels will go on their roofs. Students should have more say.

The Greens want to give the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) more money and push for a reform of BAföG (federal student aid). The aid should offset rising costs, especially for housing, and reach more students.

The Greens want to give student services more money. These run dorms and cafeterias. BAföG should get better. BAföG is state money for students. More students should be able to get it.

The Greens want to make academic employment more secure and predictable. Following Bremen's example, more permanent mid-level academic positions are to be created, and at the federal level the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (law on fixed-term academic contracts) is to be fundamentally reformed.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The Greens want more permanent jobs at universities. Pay should be fair. Women should be equally represented at every level.

The Greens want findings from universities to reach society and business more effectively. Every university is to get an innovation hub, and transfer is to be guided by the sustainable development goals.

Knowledge from universities should help everyone. The Greens want an innovation hub at every university. This is a place where researchers and companies meet. People get help there with starting a company.

The Greens want to increase the number of places to study medicine by extending models such as the medical campuses in Trier and Koblenz to other locations. The platform argues that good health care starts with good training.

The Greens want more places to study medicine. Trier and Koblenz already have such programs. More towns should follow. Training for nursing should also matter more.

The Greens want to create enough daycare places and recruit more skilled staff, in part through paid on-the-job training. They also plan an inclusion budget for daycare centers, better working conditions and a mandatory language assessment before children start school.

The Greens want more daycare places. There should be more daycare teachers. Their training should be well paid. All children should take a language test before school. Children with disabilities should be able to take part in daycare.

The Greens want to give all-day schools more money and staff and expand them at elementary schools across the state. All-day classes are to become the norm so that lessons, exercise and free time can be spread over the day.

The Greens want more all-day schools. Children stay there in the afternoon too. There should be music, sports, nature and art. Whole classes should spend the day at school together. Schools get more money and staff for this.

The Greens call for a state program to renovate contaminated classrooms and sanitary facilities at schools. School buildings are also to become accessible and better protected against heat.

Many school buildings are in bad shape. The Greens want a program to fix them. Rooms with harmful substances and toilets should be renewed. Schools should get protection from heat. Everyone should be able to get in without barriers.

The Greens want all teachers in the state, including elementary school teachers, to start at pay grade A13 or E13. Teachers are to have less administrative work, teacher training is to become more hands-on, and curricula are to be slimmed down.

Elementary school teachers should earn as much as teachers at other schools. Teachers should have less office work. More social workers and psychologists should help at schools. Curricula should be shorter. Schools should decide more for themselves.

The Greens want joint classes for children with and without disabilities, and with and without a migration background, to become the norm. They favor longer shared learning over early tracking, far more Integrierte Gesamtschulen (comprehensive schools) and a free school lunch.

All children should learn together. That includes children with disabilities. The Greens want no more repeating a grade. There should be many more comprehensive schools. No child should leave school without a diploma. School lunch should be free.

The Greens want to expand democracy and civic education from daycare through adult education and give students more of a say. The party rejects recruitment efforts by the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) at schools and wants to act firmly against far-right incidents.

Children and young people should learn more about democracy. This should start in daycare. Students should have more say at school. Every student should visit a memorial site. The army should not recruit at schools.

The Greens want well-equipped vocational schools and inter-company training centers and want all schools to be able to hold practical days. They also plan pilot projects for a dual upper secondary track, a voluntary service year after ninth grade with a right to return, and a right to attend school up to age 25.

The Greens want to strengthen job training. Students should have regular hands-on days. In trials, young people should earn a diploma and a trade certificate together. Teens should be able to do a volunteer year after grade 9. Then they can come back to school. Everyone should be allowed to go to school until 25.

The Greens see public-interest continuing education as part of essential public services and plan a new state law for it. The law is meant to make continuing education accessible in cities and rural areas, online and in person, regardless of income.

Adults should be able to learn all their lives. The Greens plan a new law for this. There should be courses in cities and in the countryside. Online too. Having little money should not be a barrier.

The SPD wants paid training for early childhood educators to become the standard route and wants to shorten the training where this is possible without lowering quality. This is meant to help municipalities find skilled staff for daycare centers.

Daycare centers need more skilled staff. The SPD wants trainees for this job to get paid during training. That should become the normal way. The training should also get shorter where possible. The quality should stay the same.

The SPD wants to grow the daycare language network from 350 to 1,000 centers and track each child's language development. Daycare centers with particular needs are to get more staff and more social work through the Sozialraumbudget (a needs-based funding pot).

Children should learn to speak well early on. Today the state funds special language staff in 350 daycare centers. The SPD wants to raise that to 1,000 centers. Centers with many children in difficult situations should get more money and staff. Social work in daycare should also grow.

The SPD wants daycare centers and elementary schools to cooperate more closely so that children in their last daycare year move on to school well prepared. The Startchancen program for schools in difficult circumstances is to get stronger support and be widened.

Moving from daycare to elementary school is a big step. The SPD wants daycare centers and schools to work together more closely. Children should learn reading, writing and math well from the start. Schools with special problems should get more help.

The SPD wants to provide all textbooks and workbooks free of charge to every child. Families are to save up to 2,500 euros so that parents' income does not affect educational opportunities.

Textbooks and workbooks cost families money. The SPD wants all children to get them for free. Families should save up to 2,500 euros this way. No child should have worse chances because the parents have little money.

The SPD wants to strengthen school teams made up of teachers, social workers, psychologists and support staff and to create more Familiengrundschulzentren (family centers at elementary schools). Schools are to be linked more closely with their communities, and every child should be able to learn to swim.

Different experts should work together at schools. These include teachers, social workers and psychologists. The SPD wants more family centers at elementary schools. There, families get advice and help in one place. Every child should also be able to learn to swim.

The SPD wants high-quality all-day programs to become the standard across the state and plans more all-day schools where lessons and other activities alternate. Schools are to get more money, qualified teaching staff throughout the day and less burdened principals.

The SPD wants more and better all-day schools. Children also learn there in the afternoon. The schools should get more money for this. Well-trained staff should be there all day. School principals should have less office work.

The SPD is counting on computer science as a compulsory subject, a free AI platform for all schools and trained teachers. It also wants to protect children and teenagers better from online risks and draw up a state strategy for media literacy at every age.

All students should take computer science. Schools should be able to use a free platform for artificial intelligence. Teachers should learn how to work with it. Children should be safe online. The SPD also wants a plan for media skills for all age groups.

The SPD wants to support schools of all types in adopting new ways of learning and teaching through the “Schule der Zukunft” (school of the future) initiative and give principals more leeway. Teachers are to be relieved through less red tape and digital tools, and small elementary schools through regional networks.

Schools should be able to try new ways of learning. Principals should be able to decide more on their own. Teachers should have less paperwork. That leaves more time for the children. Small elementary schools should share staff for office work and social work.

The SPD wants to introduce children to math, computer science, natural sciences and technology more strongly as early as daycare and elementary school. This is meant to open career paths, secure skilled workers and strengthen the state's capacity for innovation.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. The SPD wants to get children excited about it early. This should start in daycare and elementary school. Staff and teachers get suitable training. Girls and boys should have equal chances.

The SPD stands by parents' unrestricted right to choose and regards mainstream schools, Schwerpunktschulen (mainstream schools with an inclusion focus) and special-needs schools together as the basis of inclusive education. Schools and daycare centers should also be safe spaces with no room for exclusion, bullying or violence.

Parents should still choose freely which school their child with special needs attends. There are three kinds of schools for this. Special-needs schools will stay. Schools and daycare centers should be free of barriers. No one should be excluded or bullied there.

The SPD wants to conclude a democracy pact for daycare centers and schools and introduce a dedicated “democracy time” at secondary schools. Students are to get more rights to participate, and more money is to go to civic education.

Children and teenagers should learn about democracy in daycare and school. The SPD wants to make a democracy pact for this. Secondary schools should have a fixed democracy time. Students should have more say. There should be more money for civic education.

The SPD wants all young people to find a next step into vocational training or qualification after school. To that end, support programs, career guidance and vocational schools are to be strengthened; comprehensive schools would be allowed to run six parallel classes per grade where needed.

After school, every young person should know what comes next. The SPD wants to expand programs that help students graduate. Schools should inform students about jobs early. Vocational schools should be strengthened. Comprehensive schools should be allowed to grow where needed.

The SPD wants to pay elementary school teachers at the A13 civil-service salary grade. It also plans to keep hiring many new teachers every year and to adapt teacher training to new forms of teaching.

The SPD wants to pay elementary school teachers more. They should move up to pay grade A13. The state should keep hiring many new teachers. Teacher training should also become more modern.

The SPD wants to tie the school supervisory authority more closely to the education ministry while giving it a stronger regional focus. The aim is faster and better-tailored support for schools.

The school supervisory office checks and advises schools. The SPD wants to reorganize it. It should work more closely with the education ministry. And it should be closer to the schools in each region.

The SPD wants to make vocational training more attractive and give closer support to young people who need more help. At the federal level it is pushing for a permanent integration subsidy meant to encourage companies to train disadvantaged young people.

The SPD wants more young people to finish job training. Those who need help should get advice and support. Companies should get money when they train disadvantaged young people. The SPD wants to push for this at the federal level.

The SPD wants to keep funding Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) and recognized training providers reliably and support their digitalization. Within five years, the number of training hours is to rise to one million, and basic education offers are to grow.

Adult education centers offer courses for everyone. The SPD wants to keep giving them enough money. There should be more digital courses, but also courses close to home. People should be able to catch up on reading, writing or a school diploma.

The SPD wants to safeguard the freedom of research and teaching, which it sees as increasingly under pressure. Researchers who face hostility or threats are to get more help, and science communication is to be strengthened.

Research and teaching are free in Germany. The SPD says researchers are attacked more often. So they should get more help. Science should explain its work better. That way people should trust it more.

The SPD wants to give universities more responsibility over their own finances while investing in buildings, teaching spaces and digital infrastructure. The money is to come from the special investment fund (Sondervermögen).

Universities should decide more about their own money. The SPD also wants to invest in new buildings. The buildings should be good for the climate. Teaching rooms and data centers should become more modern too. The money comes from a special state fund.

The SPD wants studying in Rhineland-Palatinate to stay tuition-free and independent of income or life circumstances. Dual, part-time and digital degree programs are to be expanded, and BAföG (federal student aid) is to be developed further.

Studying in Rhineland-Palatinate should cost no fees. It should stay that way. There should be more programs for people who also work. Studying online should get easier too. Students with disabilities should face fewer obstacles. The SPD wants better student aid.

The SPD wants to make academic careers more predictable and create additional permanent positions alongside professorships. Women in academia are to continue receiving targeted support.

People working in science often have only temporary contracts. The SPD wants to create more permanent jobs. Careers should be easier to plan. Women should get special support. Family and work should fit together better.

The SPD wants to fund research priorities in biotechnology, life sciences, artificial intelligence and quantum computing with dedicated programs from the special investment fund. Results are to reach practical use faster through innovation platforms, start-ups and university spin-offs.

The SPD wants to give certain research extra support. This includes biotechnology and artificial intelligence. The money comes from a special state fund. Research ideas should turn into new companies and products faster. A large research center should come to the state.

The SPD wants to introduce Islamic religious education as a regular school subject. It is to be taught by teachers employed by the state and supervised by state school authorities.

The SPD wants Islamic religious classes in schools. They should become a normal school subject. The teachers work for the state. The state supervises the classes.