Katja Suding, deputy chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group (archive)
Photo:
Daniel Naupold / dpa
In the debate on German educational federalism, the FDP is pushing for more federal influence.
"The German education system has fallen out of time," criticized the deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Katja Suding.
The corona crisis shows that federalism is "immeasurably overburdened" in dealing with the crisis quickly and decisively.
Even if the lack of laptops is the reality of students and teachers, the 16 ministers of education cannot agree on common solutions.
Suding aims to ensure that the digitization of schools in Germany has been slow for years - and currently.
One of the reasons lies in the coordination processes between the federal and state governments.
Take teacher laptops, for example: last August, Minister of Education and Minister of Education, Anja Karliczek (CDU), agreed on a 500 million euro program for the purchase of equipment for teachers - and demonstrated a great deal of unity.
The funds have only been flowing since Thursday, just under six months later.
Among other things, several weeks passed before all federal states had signed a corresponding administrative agreement.
School policy in Germany is a state matter.
This is how the founding mothers and fathers of the German constitution established it after the experiences of National Socialism around 70 years ago.
In the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) the 16 education ministers find a common body.
However, the resolutions are not legally binding.
In the corona crisis, this also means that the countries act very differently at schools.
Federalism has had strong supporters and opponents for years.
Critics like Suding repeatedly call for a more uniform approach and more cooperation between the federal and state governments, including a corresponding amendment to the Basic Law.
KMK President defends federalism
The FDP parliamentary group wants to adopt a position paper on Saturday at its retreat, which is available to SPIEGEL.
The liberals want, among other things, "away from the prohibition of cooperation towards an" enabling clause "for cooperation between the federal government and the states on educational issues".
A few days earlier, FDP leader Christian Lindner had called for an end to the ban on cooperation in a guest article in the "Tagesspiegel".
Karliczek also recently questioned educational federalism in its current form in SPIEGEL.
KMK President Britta Ernst, on the other hand, admitted the need for reform, but defended the school system: "Education policy is a matter for the federal states, and that is a good thing."
In the pandemic, for example, the different infection processes naturally lead to different strategies, but anything else would also be wrong.
The KMK appears very united, emphasized Ernst and referred to "absolute agreement" on the point that classroom teaching, even with the best technology, cannot be replaced by distance and change formats.
In addition, it should not automatically lead from an incidence to a school closure.
Icon: The mirror
focus
