Compulsory schooling: Craft sector warns AfD against abolishing requirement

Germany’s craft sector has issued a sharp warning ahead of the Saxony-Anhalt state election: abolishing compulsory schooling would threaten young people’s prospects and the economy’s future workforce.

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a central pillar of our social infrastructure

Holger Schwannecke, secretary-general of the Central Association of German Crafts, called compulsory schooling “a central pillar of our social infrastructure” in comments to Bild. He described efforts to abolish it as “a frontal attack on the future opportunities of young people.”

The AfD, which leads opinion polls in Saxony-Anhalt, wants to abolish compulsory schooling and replace it with what it calls an education requirement. Its election program argues that schools politically indoctrinate children and expose them to “questionable views.”

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a frontal attack on the future opportunities of young people

The proposal faces a constitutional hurdle. Saxony-Anhalt’s general compulsory schooling requirement is enshrined in the state constitution, and changing it would require support from two-thirds of state lawmakers. The election is scheduled for the coming Sunday. The AfD is hoping for an absolute majority and a government on its own, while the governing CDU ranks a distant second in polls.

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questionable views

The craft sector linked its opposition to a shortage of workers and training applicants. Around 20,000 apprenticeships remain unfilled at the start of the new training year. Schwannecke said many applicants already lack basic abilities in arithmetic, reading and writing. Against that backdrop, he said, abolishing compulsory schooling would endanger the teaching of essential skills and “take an axe to training, the supply of skilled workers and the competitiveness of crafts and business.”

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take an axe to training, the supply of skilled workers and the competitiveness of crafts and business