Hardly any other school subject is taught as often as politics. Yet this discipline contributes to the continued existence of democracy. Political didactics expert Tonio Oeftering on the value of political education - also with a view to the European elections.
This year's elections to the European Parliament will take place on 23 May. Even at the last elections, many supporters of the EU hoped that things would not turn out so badly with the rise of anti-EU forces. But their hopes have never been as unfounded as this time. In recent years, there has been a global shift to the right, which has affected Europe as well as the USA and Brazil.
In the run-up to these elections, we keep hearing that more political education is needed to get young voters in particular excited about Europe. This is true, but not fair. After all, it is not enough to call for political education every few years - just in time for the elections. This is overburdened with a "fire-fighting function". This is also because good political education needs two things that are often denied to it: Time and structural and financial resources.
Political education is underrepresented in school timetables and is taught outside of the subject more often than almost any other subject. Extracurricular civic education institutions are increasingly subject to the laws of the education market and are often only able to maintain their already slimmed-down programmes at the cost of precarious jobs for their employees. And the universities? In addition to their contribution to research, they have a special responsibility, especially with regard to teacher training. And this should not be limited to training in the subject of politics.
If we see schools as a central place of civic education, where all teachers have to make their contribution to the continued existence and further development of democracy, then it follows that all student teachers should attend at least one introductory course in civic education during their studies. This would be a measure that could strengthen political education in the long term and counteract the short-term calls for the fire brigade.