training
Bundestag debates about student loan increase
The training grant (Bafög) in Germany is to be reformed. Photo: Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The number of Bafög recipients has continued to decline. The traffic light coalition now wants to expand the group of recipients with a reform and raise the Bafög rates. But that should only be a first step.
The opposition in the Bundestag has criticized the student loan reform initiated by the traffic light coalition as insufficient. The CDU politician Monika Grütters spoke of a “small throw” on Thursday when the law was first discussed.
The higher Bafög rates would be completely eaten up by inflation, criticized the left education politician Nicole Gohlke. The education policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group, Götz Frömming, spoke of a “drop in the ocean”.
Trend reversal or jumped too short?
Speakers from the governing parties defended the project: “This first Bafög step is a giant step forward,” said Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) about her law. Regarding criticism, she said: “Yes, every euro in your pocket is always good. But we need the right balance between those who pay and those who get something, and we have to keep rebalancing it.” The SPD politician Lina Seitzel spoke of the beginning of a trend reversal. You turn the downward spiral in Bafög again.
In the past ten years, the number of BaföG recipients has fallen continuously. After a high of 979,000 (including student loans) in 2012, it was only 639,000 last year. The Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW) is convinced that the reasons for this include the fact that the performance over the years has not been enough reformed, expanded and adapted to new realities of life.
The reform of the traffic light now provides for an increase in the Bafög rates for the winter semester by five percent. The parents’ allowances are to increase by 20 percent, so that the circle of possible recipients will increase. Surcharges for rent, health and nursing care insurance and for childcare for students with children are also to be increased. In addition, the age limit of 30 at the start of Bafög is to be raised to 45 so that studies can also be started later. The Bafög is also increasing for students and trainees.
The draft law will now be discussed further in the education committee. Student representatives are still hoping for changes before they are passed in the Bundestag. With reference to inflation, they are demanding higher student loans.
According to the plans of the traffic light coalition, further reform steps are planned for student loans later. According to the SPD, Greens and FDP, it should become “more independent of parents”, in that the basic child security plan planned by the coalition will be paid directly to students in the long term – as the “basic basis for student financing”, as it is called.