#LobbyFürBildung - More participation rights for children and youth in the new coalition agreement

We need a stronger lobby for children and young people in education policy. For a modern, fair and crisis-proof education.  

The Corona pandemic has ruthlessly exposed where the weak points in our education system lie - and that these have not only existed since 2020: inadequate equipment in schools, barely any digitalisation, too few staff in kindergartens and schools, growing inequality of opportunity. The list could be continued. This is reality for many children and young people.  

Although young people have contributed crucially to the containment of the pandemic, they have hardly been listened to by politicians or involved in the development of solutions. In principle - regardless of a pandemic - adults too often decide on their own how children and young people should learn or organise their everyday lives. Yet it is the children and young people who experience the effects of educational policy decisions at first hand every day in educational institutions. They are therefore also experts on learning and on everyday life in kindergartens and schools.  

We need a systemic change in education. That is why we, as Stiftung Bildung, are strengthening the commitment around daycare centres and schools and explicitly advocate youth participation in this context. We therefore demand: The new coalition agreement must declare more participation rights for children and young people in education policy, so that their perspectives, opinions and ideas are heard and taken seriously. After all, political participation in areas that they are affected by is their good right, as laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Our demands  

1. nationwide uniform, binding rights of participation for pupils in schools.  

2. nationwide uniform, binding regulations for the participation of children in kindergartens and day-care centres.  

3. closer involvement of young civil society and their opinions in educational policy processes at the federal level.  

4. involving children and young people in research projects on education - from the very beginning.  

5. significantly increase education spending to at least the OECD average, also to strengthen participation structures.  

This is what #LobbyForEducation (#LobbyFürBildung) stands for.