zwd Berlin. The 16th child and youth report published on Wednesday (November 11th) sees the learning of children and youths severely impaired under the conditions of the crisis and marked by worsening social inequalities. In particular, digital learning and home schooling are essentially limited to imparting knowledge, schools are only “reduced to subject-specific lessons”, judge the group of authors. Democratic experience hardly plays a role anymore, extracurricular activities would usually be completely eliminated without the young people having a chance to have a say.
Commission recommends more say for young people
“The political education of young people is a pillar of our democracy, especially in turbulent times,” emphasized Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey on the occasion of the presentation of the report. Like the expert commission, the minister called for young people to be more involved in decisions. In a statement adopted by the cabinet on the same day (Drs. 19/24200), the Federal Government agrees with the criticism expressed in the report that there were no opportunities for young people to participate in the crisis and that they were often reduced to the role of students in social debates.
A commission of 14 experts from universities and educational associations commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs (BMFSFJ) had been working on the 600-page report on “Promoting democratic education in children and adolescents” since October 2018. The paper will now be forwarded to the Bundestag and Bundesrat. According to the BMFSFJ, the aim of the study was to show the political education experiences of young people up to the age of 27 and development needs, as well as to formulate advice for practice, politics and research. In some cases, children and young people had the opportunity to participate in the creation of the report through workshops and interviews.
SPD proposes a law promoting democracy
The SPD parliamentary group emphasizes the importance of the active participation of young people in learning about democracy. In a comment on the report, the Social Democrats’ spokesman for child and youth policy, Sönke Rix, described it as the responsibility of those responsible to create opportunities for this type of participation. From the point of view of his parliamentary group, due to the far-reaching developments in society, it is essential for children and young people to learn “critical and competent handling of digital media” early on. Therefore, the SPD parliamentary group advocates “youth-friendly information and educational offers as well as the promotion of media skills”, said Rix.
In order to do justice to the promotion of democracy as a permanent task, the Social Democrats propose a “Democracy Promotion Act” according to their spokesman for child and youth policy, with which they want to perpetuate the successful approaches from the 2014 BMFSFJ program Live Democracy. According to Rix, all federal levels and their institutions should be obliged to shape democracy as a lived experience together with civil society groups.
Political education for young people should be given more weight
Against the background of modern challenges of democracy, such as globalization and climate change, the corona crisis and digitization, the authors of the report recommend that the promotion of political education and learning about democracy be given higher priority. More modern, age-appropriate educational opportunities are required for all young people. Political education needs “more weight and belongs wherever young people come into contact with politics and democracy,” said the chairman of the commission, Prof. Christian Palentien.
Palentien gave actors in families, daycare centers and schools, youth associations, training and the media responsibility in the process of political education. The government essentially shares this view. In order for civic education of children and young people to be able to fulfill their tasks in the face of the current problems, it must undoubtedly be given more importance, the statement said. Accordingly, the government is taking up the demand put forward by the Commission to revalue and stabilize the field of democratic learning accordingly and to anchor political education offers for young people more widely.
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