What do the parties in Saarland say on education?

The AfD wants to tackle the shortage of skilled workers through more vocational training rather than immigration. Training for the Meister (master craftsman) qualification would be free, and the state would support further training for employees. In the long run the party relies on family policy to meet demand from within the country.

Saarland lacks skilled workers. The AfD therefore wants stronger job training. Training to become a master craftsman should be free. The party does not see immigration as the answer. In the long run, more children in the country should fill the gap.

The AfD wants to split the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) into a Realschule and a trades and crafts school. Together with the Gymnasium, this would form a three-tier system. Grades are to reflect performance clearly, and the Abitur is to become more demanding.

The AfD wants three types of school after elementary school. The comprehensive school should be split. Then there would be the Realschule and a trades and crafts school. The Gymnasium is the third type. Grades should show performance honestly.

The AfD wants students without sufficient German to be taught in separate German classes first. Only those who can demonstrably speak and write German well would join regular classes. The platform argues that otherwise the level of teaching suffers for everyone.

Some children do not speak German well yet. The AfD wants separate German classes for them. They should join normal classes only with good German. The AfD says: Otherwise all children learn less.

The AfD rejects having all children learn together without exception and wants to allow different forms of inclusion, such as separate classes within a shared school center. It also wants to strengthen Förderschulen (special-needs schools). The stated reason is the well-being of all students.

The AfD does not want all children to always learn together. Children with and without disabilities can also learn in separate classes. This could happen in the same school center. Special-needs schools should become stronger.

The AfD wants better funding for Saarland's universities while reducing the number of students. It considers the bachelor's-master's system a mistake and wants to reconnect with the older Diplom, Magister and Staatsexamen degrees.

The AfD wants more money for universities in Saarland. But there should be fewer students. The AfD rejects bachelor's and master's degrees. It wants the old degrees back, such as the Diplom.

The AfD wants to abolish gender quotas and gender studies chairs at universities and to end what it sees as one-sided politicization. Membership in the student body organization would become voluntary if necessary.

The AfD wants no more professorships for gender studies. Quotas for women and men at universities should also end. The AfD says: Universities are too one-sided politically. Students may get to choose whether they join the student body group.

The AfD wants to prevent pools in need of renovation from closing for good. All children should be required to learn to swim, and school swimming lessons should actually take place.

Many pools in Saarland are closing because money for repairs is missing. The AfD wants to keep these pools. All children should have to learn to swim. Schools should really offer swimming lessons. There should be more teaching pools and fewer fun pools.

The AfD wants visits by Bundeswehr youth officers to be written into the curriculum for the middle grades of secondary schools. The number of youth officers should rise, because the party believes the armed forces are less well known since conscription was suspended.

Youth officers are soldiers who inform students about the German army. The AfD wants their visits to be a fixed part of the curriculum. This should apply to the middle grades. There should be more youth officers. So far there are four.

The AfD Saarland commits to a German Leitkultur (guiding culture) and wants to reestablish a subject called Heimatkunde (local history and homeland studies) at all schools in the state. The aim is to preserve attachment to the homeland in future generations. The party rejects multiculturalism and globalism.

The AfD wants to bring back the school subject Heimatkunde. It teaches children about their home region. All schools in Saarland should offer it. Children should get to know and love their homeland. The AfD speaks of a German guiding culture. By this it means shared values and traditions in Germany.

The CDU wants Saarland's universities and research institutes to keep internationalizing and to attract more students from abroad. It justifies this with the importance for research, teaching and the export-oriented economy.

Universities in Saarland should become even more international. More young people from other countries should study there. The CDU says this helps research and the economy.

The CDU wants to expand the university's Europe focus and the Franco-German institute at htw saar. Saarland's universities are to remain national leaders in Franco-German and trinational degree programs.

Universities in Saarland should teach a lot about Europe and France. The CDU wants to build on this strength. There should still be many degree programs with France.

The CDU stands by university autonomy and wants to keep steering through target and performance agreements. The broad range of disciplines, including the humanities, is to be preserved.

Universities should keep deciding for themselves. The state agrees on goals with them. All subjects should stay. This includes subjects like history or languages.

The CDU wants to set up a joint doctoral college of Saarland University and htw saar with its own right to award doctorates. Research-active professors from the university of applied sciences would supervise dissertations there on equal terms.

The CDU wants a new institution for doctoral degrees. The university and the applied sciences school htw saar run it together. Professors from htw saar may also supervise doctoral work there.

Citing a teacher shortage, the CDU wants more university places for primary school teaching and a new degree program at the university for teaching at special-needs schools. Digital content is to get more weight in all teacher training programs.

Saarland lacks teachers at primary schools and special-needs schools. So the CDU wants more study places. There should be a new degree for special-needs teachers. Future teachers should learn more about digital learning.

The CDU wants to expand digital infrastructure and digital teaching at universities while keeping them as in-person institutions. Students who were set back by the pandemic are to get special learning support.

Universities should get better digital technology. Students should still learn on campus. Students who had problems because of the pandemic should get help.

The CDU wants planned construction and renovation projects at the universities and the university hospital carried out quickly. Buildings are to be modern, accessible and sustainable; public transit access to the Saarbrücken campus is also to improve.

The CDU wants to renew university buildings quickly or build new ones. The biggest project is a neuroscience center in Homburg. The Saarbrücken campus should be easier to reach by bus and train.

The CDU wants to put the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) on a broader financial and thematic footing. Research on sensor intelligence is also to be brought together in a dedicated focus area.

ZeMA is a research center in Saarland. The CDU wants more partners to put money into it. The center should get more research jobs from local companies. Research on smart sensors should come together in one place.

The CDU wants to strengthen research on new active substances by expanding the Helmholtz institute HIPS and creating a drug research center at Saarland University. It pledges state co-financing for a second Excellence Cluster application by the university.

The CDU wants more research on new medicines. The research institute HIPS should grow. The university should get its own center for drug research. The state will add money if the university wins a big funding contest.

The CDU wants to develop an overarching education strategy to make Saarland an attractive place for education by 2030. A new staff unit is to analyze problems and develop solutions.

The CDU wants a plan for education in Saarland. By 2030, Saarland should be a good place to learn. A new office will study the problems. It will also come up with new ideas.

The CDU wants to make further training for daycare staff and teachers more flexible in time and place. The platform sees lifelong learning as a precondition for keeping pace with change in schools and the economy.

Daycare staff and teachers should find it easier to take training courses. Courses should be possible at different times and places. There should also be fitting courses for people at work. The CDU says people must keep learning all their lives.

The CDU wants to create a competence center for digital education at Saarland University that advises and trains teachers and helps with technical questions. Digitalization is to follow teaching concepts tailored to each target group.

The CDU wants to start a center for digital learning. It will be at Saarland University. The center advises teachers and offers courses. It also helps with questions about technology.

The CDU wants to give children, teenagers and young adults targeted support in catching up on learning gaps caused by the pandemic. This is to be based on an ongoing assessment of the pandemic's effects.

Because of Covid, many children learned less. The CDU wants to help them catch up. There will be special learning offers for this. There will also be voluntary offers during school vacations.

The CDU wants to keep Gymnasium (academic high school), Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) and vocational schools as three pillars and distinguish their profiles more clearly. Instead of fundamental disputes over pedagogy, it calls for peace on school structure and updated curricula.

Saarland has academic high schools, comprehensive schools and vocational schools. The CDU wants to keep all three. Each type of school should have its own clear goal. There should be no big fight over the school system.

The CDU wants access to the Gymnasium (academic high school) to depend once again on a binding recommendation from the elementary school. According to the party, this is meant to prevent lotteries for places and wrong school choices.

After elementary school, parents pick a school for their child. The CDU wants the elementary school to decide again who may attend the academic high school. That way children should not end up at the wrong school. Drawing lots for places should also stop.

The CDU wants to add a year of learning at the Gymnasium (academic high school), so that the Abitur diploma is earned there after nine years, as at comprehensive schools. Weekly lesson hours are also to rise in order to teach more computer science, among other things.

At academic high schools, the path to the final diploma takes eight years today. The CDU wants one more year. Then it takes nine years, as at comprehensive schools. Students should have more time to learn.

The CDU wants to create positions for administrative assistants at schools who take organizational and bureaucratic work off teachers' hands. This is meant to let teachers focus more on teaching.

Teachers have a lot of office work. The CDU wants to hire extra staff at schools for this. These people take care of organizing and paperwork. Then teachers have more time for lessons.

The CDU wants to review the system of performance assessment and ensure clear, comprehensible standards for grading. Especially gifted children are to receive more support starting in elementary school.

The CDU wants clear rules for school grades. Everyone should understand how a grade comes about. Comparison tests within a grade level should stay. Very gifted children should get more support.

The CDU wants to expand all-day care and make the voluntary all-day school more attractive. Parents are to keep their freedom to choose. The "Flexible All-Day" model is to be extended to more schools.

The CDU wants more afternoon care at schools. Parents should decide which kind of care they want. A flexible model should come to more schools. Teachers should also help in the afternoon.

The CDU wants to make Saarland multilingual, with German, French and English. The European School in Saarbrücken is to get a permanent site quickly. The Schengen-Lyzeum in Perl is also to become a European School.

The CDU wants people in Saarland to know three languages. These are German, French and English. A European School in Saarbrücken should be built quickly. The school in Perl should also become a European School.

The CDU wants to shift the focus from hardware to good digitally supported teaching. Curricula are to be revised, the DigitalPakt Schule (federal-state school digitalization fund) expanded, and teachers trained continuously.

Schools already get digital devices. The CDU wants lessons with them to be good too. For this, the school plans should be rewritten. Teachers should keep learning about this.

The CDU wants to strengthen the "Früh Deutsch lernen" (Learn German Early) program and keep the preparatory courses in the last year of kindergarten statewide. Language support in daycare centers is also to be expanded.

Some children do not speak German well before school starts. The CDU wants to help these children early. They learn German in small groups half a year before school. Daycare centers should also offer more language help.

The CDU wants to keep the choice between inclusive classes at regular schools and special-needs schools. Special-needs schools are to stay independent and be expanded or newly built where needed. School kindergartens are to return for children not yet ready for school.

Children with special needs can go to a regular school or a special school today. The CDU wants parents to keep this choice. Special schools should stay. New ones should be built if needed. Children who are not ready for school should get school kindergartens.

The CDU wants to develop new, interactive continuing-education programs and build a tool that matches workers' skills with companies' needs. This is meant to support the region's economic transformation.

The world of work is changing fast. The CDU wants better courses for working people. A program should show what workers can do and what companies need. Then everyone gets fitting courses.

The CDU wants to set up an institute for vocational education that pools responsibilities and removes duplicate structures. Vocational schools are to keep their full range of programs and get a push in digitalization.

The CDU wants a new institute for job training. All partners work together there. Vocational schools should stay and become more digital. More young people should become teachers at vocational schools.

The CDU wants to bring early-intervention centers and the offices for integration together in one system. It also wants more inclusive daycare centers so that children are cared for without interruptions.

Children who need extra support should get help early. The CDU wants to combine two kinds of help centers. Help should be simple and close to home. There should be more daycare centers for children with and without disabilities.

The CDU wants to thoroughly evaluate the current school inclusion regulation and then revise it. Special-needs schools are also to get reliable afternoon and vacation care.

There are rules for children learning together at school. The CDU wants to check these rules and then change them. Experts should find out early, in daycare, what help a child needs. Special-needs schools should offer care in the afternoon and during vacations.

The CDU wants to make French a required subject from first grade and promote multilingualism starting in daycare. Multilingual training and degree programs as well as international schools are to be strengthened so that people from Saarland can work and live anywhere in Europe.

All children should learn French from first grade. Children should already meet foreign languages in daycare. For this, the CDU wants to recruit childcare workers who are native French speakers. There should be more training and degree programs in several languages.

The CDU wants to launch an initiative for vocational training across the border. The training agreement between Saarland and Lorraine is to be developed further and extended to other partners in the Greater Region.

Young people should be able to do their job training in a neighboring country too. The CDU wants to do more for this. An agreement with Lorraine already exists. It should also cover other neighbors. Trainees should do internships abroad more often.

The SPD wants to guarantee a training place to everyone looking for an apprenticeship. The dual vocational training system is to be strengthened, including through better career guidance and stronger vocational training centers.

Anyone looking for an apprenticeship should get a place. The SPD wants to guarantee this. Schools should prepare students better for jobs. Vocational schools should get stronger. People who need help to finish should get it.

The SPD wants to give education investment top priority and set up a dedicated education fund for it. It also wants to lift the constitutional ban on cooperation so the federal government can help pay for education.

The SPD wants to spend more money on education. There should be a special fund for it. The federal government should be allowed to help pay for schools. Today the constitution mostly forbids that.

The SPD wants to keep expanding compulsory all-day schools so families can choose between voluntary and compulsory all-day models. By 2030, additional all-day offerings are to be created according to need.

The SPD wants more all-day schools. Children there have lessons and care in the afternoon too. Families should be able to choose the type they want. There should be more offerings by 2030.

The SPD wants to launch a school building program for municipalities, hire more staff, and reduce class sizes. Schools are to get more autonomy and students more say, and staff are to be allocated more closely according to local burdens.

The SPD wants modern school buildings and equipment. There should be more teachers and smaller classes. Children should have more time to learn. Schools with many problems get more help. Students should have more say.

The SPD wants Saarland to spend more per student compared with other German states. All educational tracks, from comprehensive schools to academic high schools and vocational schools, are to be equipped on an equal footing.

The SPD wants to spend more money on schools. Saarland should do better compared with other German states. All types of schools should be equally well equipped.

The SPD wants to allow no more than 25 children per class in elementary schools and aims for even smaller classes over time. Principals are to get dedicated time for leadership duties.

An elementary school class should have at most 25 children. Later, classes should get even smaller. Principals should get more time for running their school.

The SPD wants to ease the burden on Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive schools) and launch a quality drive there. Teachers at all secondary schools are to be put on equal footing in promotion, teaching load, and pay.

The SPD wants to strengthen comprehensive schools. Teachers there should have the same conditions as at academic high schools. Learning groups should be smaller.

The SPD wants academic high schools (Gymnasien) to return to a nine-year path to the Abitur diploma, known as G9. In the platform's view, the eight-year model does not serve many students well.

At academic high schools, the path to the diploma should take nine years again. Today it takes eight years. The SPD says eight years is too short for many. Schools should use the time for better support.

The SPD wants to support vocational schools and the dual apprenticeship system and set up a Center for Transformation. Career guidance is to be expanded at all general schools because the party sees apprenticeships and university study as equally valuable.

The SPD wants to strengthen vocational schools and apprenticeships. A new center should help with this. All schools should give better information about jobs. For the SPD, an apprenticeship is worth as much as a university degree.

The SPD wants to keep developing daycare centers and schools into inclusive institutions. Multi-professional teams are to be deployed, and regional support structures for mainstream schools further developed.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. This is called inclusion. The SPD wants to equip daycare centers and schools better for this. Experts from different professions should work together.

The SPD wants to strengthen participation in schools and give school social workers an equal say. Education on democracy and human rights is to be expanded, as is the "Gesunde Schule Saarland" (Healthy School Saarland) program.

More people should have a say in schools. That includes school social workers. Children should learn early what democracy and human rights mean. The SPD also wants to promote health in schools.

Starting in the 2022/23 school year, the SPD wants to give all students from third grade up, as well as apprentices, tablets and digital textbooks. Computer science is to become a mandatory subject from seventh grade.

All students from third grade up should get a tablet. Apprentices get one too. They also get digital textbooks. From seventh grade, computer science should be a required subject.

The SPD wants to include media education in the curricula of all subjects and grades and make it a mandatory part of initial and ongoing training for educators. Schools are to get technical support and fast internet.

Children should learn how to use media in all subjects. Teachers and daycare staff should learn this in their training too. Schools get help with technology. They should have fast internet.

The SPD wants to make adult basic education, such as reading and writing, a priority in the coming years. In civic education, new learning formats are to be funded that help people respond to far-right slogans.

Many adults cannot read well. The SPD wants to help them better. This should be an important topic in the coming years. People should also learn how to answer far-right slogans.

The SPD wants to give universities predictable and sufficient core funding instead of letting austerity drive planning. A broad range of subjects and enough study places are to be maintained.

Universities should get enough money. They should be able to plan with it safely. The SPD does not want to cut spending on universities. There should be many different subjects to study.

The SPD wants to create permanent, adequately paid positions for ongoing tasks in research and teaching. Students are to have a stronger role in committee decisions, and student assistants are to be covered by the staff representation law.

Many researchers only have temporary contracts. The SPD wants more permanent jobs at universities. Students should have more of a say. Student assistants should get more rights and union contracts.

The SPD wants to create affordable housing for students and make studying more flexible, for example through part-time and work-compatible degree programs. People from families without university experience are to get easier access to higher education.

Students should find cheap housing. Studying should fit better with family and work. Part-time programs help with that. People who are the first in their family to study should get more help.

The SPD rejects tuition fees and wants to expand BAföG (federal student aid). More students are to be eligible, and aid should no longer depend on parents' income.

Studying should cost nothing. The SPD is against tuition fees. More students should get BAföG. BAföG is money from the government for studying. It should no longer depend on parents' income.

The SPD wants to continue the cooperation between the state's two arts colleges and secure their funding. New subjects are to be considered, and the music college's site is to be renovated.

Saarland has two arts colleges. They should work together more closely. The SPD wants to give them enough money. It will look at new subjects such as acting. The music college will be renovated.

The SPD wants to expand education for sustainable development, for example through school and daycare gardens, nutrition education and stronger school camps. Citizen projects from the sustainability strategy and municipalities are to receive financial support.

Children should learn more about nature and the environment. Schools and daycare centers will get gardens. School camps will get more staff. There will be free vacation programs about the environment. Citizens' ideas for sustainability will get money.

The SPD wants to promote French and English more strongly in Saarland, from daycare to programs for older people. Exchanges, school partnerships and study trips in the Greater Region are to receive more funding. Vocational qualifications are to be mutually recognized and the University of the Greater Region expanded.

The SPD wants more people to learn French and English. Students and teachers should visit the neighboring country more often. Job qualifications should count on both sides of the border. The shared university should grow. Workers would get more days of educational leave.