Federal-State Commission for Educational Planning and Research Funding

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bund-Länder Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion ( BLK ) was (additional objective of the research funding since 1975) by the end of 2007, the permanent discussion forum for all from June 25, 1970 federal and countries common concern of education and research funding (Article 1 of BLK Agreement). She gave the heads of government of the federal and state governments recommendations on educational planning and research funding.

From January 1, 2008, the tasks of the BLK were partially taken over by the newly founded Joint Science Conference (GWK).

Commission

The highest advisory and decision-making body of the BLK was the commission. It consisted of eight representatives from the federal government and one (two each for research funding matters) from the state governments . The representatives of the federal government had 16 votes, which were cast uniformly, the representatives of the state governments one vote each. The chairman and the deputy chairman were alternately appointed for one year from among the representatives of the federal government and the state governments.

The committee passed its decisions with a majority of at least 25 votes. Outvoted members could put down their dissenting opinion in a special vote (negative vote). The commission decided on recommendations, which - if necessary with special votes - were presented to the heads of government of the federal and state governments for discussion and decision-making. A decision required the approval of at least 13 heads of government; he only tied those who had agreed to him. The framework agreement for research funding provided for simplified procedures for the approval of the heads of government. The results of the committee discussions, at which an interest of the specialist public was assumed, were published in the BLK series “Materials for Educational Planning and Research Promotion”.

Representatives of the Science Council, the municipal umbrella organizations and members of the main committee of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training took part in the meetings of the commission in an advisory capacity .

The procedure of the commission was regulated in the rules of procedure for the BLK.

Committees

The Commission recently set up two (previously four) committees to prepare its decisions:

  • "Educational Planning" Committee
  • Research Funding Committee.

The “Innovations in Education” project group, which was assigned to the “Educational Planning” committee, was entrusted with the decisions based on the framework agreement on pilot projects. The committees and the project group included representatives from the responsible federal and state departments. In addition, experts could be called in.

Working groups, working groups and ad hoc groups

The committees had set up permanent working groups and working groups made up of representatives of the Federation and the Länder and, if necessary, of experts, to develop draft resolutions.

In addition to the project group "Innovations in Education", the following were assigned to the Education Planning Committee:

  • Editorial conference "Study and career choice"
  • Advisory board online information system “Study and career choice”.

The working group “Promotion of Women in Science” was assigned to both committees. In addition, the Commission, the committees and the project group set up ad hoc groups on a case-by-case basis to deal with time-limited tasks.

Office

The BLK office was responsible for handling the day-to-day business and for preparing the meetings of the commission and the other bodies. In addition to the technical and content-related preparatory work, this also included the technical work.

The office was based in Bonn , originally at Heinrich-Brüning-Straße 18 . It was subject to the technical instructions of the chairman of the commission. The office, which had 24 posts / posts, was set up at the Office of the Federal President ; the federal government bore the expenses of the office. The general secretary and his deputy were appointed by the federal government in agreement with the states.

The BLK published annual reports with the results of the deliberations and with information on ongoing projects. The annual report also contained a list of publications.

Historical

The BLK was founded in 1970 as the “Federal-State Commission for Educational Planning” in an administrative agreement. This was the first time that there was a planning committee for the education sector, jointly supported by the federal and state governments, with detailed tasks. In 1975 research funding was added as an additional task, so that the name was changed accordingly from 1976.

One of the main goals of the BLK was the adoption of a " master plan for education ", which aimed at a long-term framework plan including the definition of the corresponding financial requirements. However, there were two major problems: On the one hand, the opposing positions of the SPD and CDU / CSU in three essential points ( comprehensive school , orientation level , teacher training ) could not be combined, on the other hand, the BLK wanted the educational tasks as a fixed share of the gross national product in its planning stipulate what financial politicians of all parties in the federal and state levels were reluctant to oppose.

In 1982 the BLK submitted a draft for the second overall education plan, which was rejected by financial politicians as not being financially viable. The BLK then lost the relevant responsibilities and was significantly reduced in 1983. From the previous four committees (overall education plan, education budget, innovations in education and research funding) only two remained, which still exist today.

Historical forerunners were:

Successor organization in 2008

When the federalism reform came into force on September 1, 2006 and the associated amendment to Article 91b of the Basic Law , the constitutional basis for the BLK's fields of activity changed.

The previous joint task of educational planning no longer applies with the amendment to the Basic Law. In the new version of Article 91b, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law, the Federal Government and the Länder are instead empowered to work together on the basis of agreements to determine the performance of the educational system in an international comparison and on related reports and recommendations.

In order to carry out these tasks, the heads of government of the federal and state governments decided on June 14, 2007 to set up a joint science conference, which will succeed the previous BLK from January 1, 2008.

Web links