Following a meeting with education ministers from Eastern Germany, Conrad Clemens of the CDU, the Saxon Education Minister, issued a severe warning regarding the potential takeover of the education ministry by the AfD in the neighboring state. According to statements provided to the newspaper Bild, the party’s proposed reforms could endanger the recognition of school qualifications from Saxony-Anhalt in other federal states.
Clemens’ warning stems from the AfD’s radical plan to overhaul the education system. The party’s government program outlines several changes, including weakening compulsory education rules so that parents can educate their children at home. Furthermore, the plans involve separating refugee and disabled children from general students and placing them in dedicated special classes. On the subject of history teaching, the AfD proposes teaching about National Socialism less frequently.
The CDU politician explained to Bild that abolishing compulsory schooling would primarily harm the most vulnerable learners who rely on school support. He further cautioned that such separate educational tracks could jeopardize the acceptance of diplomas issued in Saxony-Anhalt elsewhere. Clemens also deemed the idea of isolating foreign students and students with disabilities into their own classrooms as fostering dangerous classroom division, stating that such concepts are unacceptable for their education system.
Regarding the AfD’s proposals for history classes, the CDU politician-whose state consistently ranks high in educational studies-stressed that what is needed in the curricula is a focus on democracy education, not a reinterpretation of history.
