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EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

by Franz Müntefering

Every person has a right to equal educational opportunities from childhood and onwards regardless of their social background and their parents’ wealth. The right for education is a human right. To be informed, to possess and gain knowledge, to be educated: These are the premises for freedom and for the success and survival of democracy.

Individual opportunities in life and the economic perspectives of our country will in the future more than ever depend on qualified general and professional education. Innovation is not possible without children. Moreover, a high level of prosperity cannot be maintained without being based on knowledge. Therefore, investing in the young generations is absolutely fundamental for the preservation of the German competitive capacity as well as its social system.

It is unacceptable that more than ten per cent of adolescents - with the numbers on the increase - do not hold a school leavers certificate. The number of first-year students within one age group has risen explicitly, however, it is still too low. We want to reach 40 per cent but are still falling short of this figure by five per cent - in 1998, the share amounted to only 28 per cent. Also, the exceedingly high are drop out rates are worrying.

There is a backlog demand in Germany for education. This is especially the case when it comes to the education of toddlers. The time during nursery school is not used efficiently enough. The individual support of students in Germany is insufficient, and the sorting within the school system takes place far too early and is too inflexible. However, creative minds can only develop if individual talents are discovered, encouraged and are able to unfold.

A good preschool education offers small children equal opportunities in life. In many cases, children’s knowledge of the German language is inadequate. It would therefore be sensible to test the language abilities of the four- to five-year-olds and to offer obligatory courses if necessary rather than sending the children to school unprepared. Due to the further development of day care for children under the age of three - in line with the law for development of day care - we will correspond to the demand for reforms in the German educational system, which was pointed out in a recent OECD survey. Thanks to the financial relief resulting from the merging of social welfare and unemployment support, local authorities can - since the beginning of the year - expand existing programs or add new day care capacity.

It is now up to the CDU/CSU governed federal states to accept the offer of developing the infant care and education and realise this concept in cooperation with the Federal Government and the local authorities. Concerning the task of securing the future of our children, it should be of no relevance who is in office. To parents it is of less importance exactly how these reforms are financed, what matters much more is the availability to a viable and high quality nursery school.

We have to expand the full-time nursery-care programs together with language qualification and an early hands-on learning for children. Therefore, the Federal Government is providing a total of four billion Euros for the period of 2003 to 2007 for the federal states to enhance full-time schools or schools with affiliated day care according to each state’s regulations. The recently launched program is running predominantly well.

Our initiatives will increase the compatibility of family and career. We want to achieve equally good occupational perspectives for young men and women. An occupational rate among women of 60 per cent in the west and 72 percent in the east of German is too low. We neither will nor can dispense with the potential of well-educated women. Amiability towards children cannot be enacted by the SPD-Greens coalition government, but has to be realised conjointly by the Federal Government, the states and the local governments. Even more: By means of a broad social debate, we want to turn educational policy into a central topic for Germany. The entire Social Democratic Party (SPD) as well as the representatives in the Bundestag want to shape the future by investing in education and research, in the development of new products and by supporting all minds in this country.

Our goal for 2010 is ambitious: every year three, per cent of the GDP are to be spent on research and development, one third of it by the state. Today Germany stands at 2.55 per cent. Behind this seemingly marginal difference hides a sum of billions.

Consequently, it is reasonable that subsidies like the home-owner-allowance are abolished and that this money will henceforth be invested in the young generation. The cancellation of the home-ownerbenefit is the acid test to find out, if the CDU/ CSU Party is serious about the education and innovation reform.

Furthermore: the Social democrats are still lobbying for admission-free undergraduate studies. Tuition fees for undergraduate studies are socially unjust and, in matters of education policy, counterproductive. Lower social levels should not be deterred from going to university. Already only 12 per cent of the students come from blue-collar families. We want to discover and support more talented young people. Innovation and growth can only be accomplished with first class education and research.

The matter of education is the issue of the future. The equality of opportunity in Germany highly depends on the structures of education.