Icon: enlarge
Digital pact aims to promote equipment in schools (symbolic image)
Photo:
Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
No stable internet, no service laptops for teachers, not even a professional email address: the digitization of schools in Germany has been delayed for years and should finally be accelerated with the billion-dollar digital pact for schools before Corona.
Initially, however, the funds were still very sparsely called up, in the pandemic there is now apparently at least a little more movement in the matter.
From the digital pact, which has meanwhile grown to around seven billion euros,
1.363 billion euros
had flowed out or approved by
the end of last year, according to the federal and state governments
.
The number was announced by the Federal Ministry of Education and the Conference of Ministers of Education of the Länder.
According to this, the federal states reported spending funds from the funding program amounting to almost 488 million euros by the end of December.
In addition, funds totaling 875 million euros were approved but not yet called.
Funds only flow when an investment measure has been completed and the invoice is available, according to the ministry.
The figures are collected every six months.
In the previous survey at the end of June, the sums were significantly lower: at the time, only
16 million euros
had flowed out and
242 million euros were
committed.
Funds for rental laptops for schoolchildren have only been partially withdrawn
The digital pact, originally with five billion euros from the federal government and 500 million euros from the federal states, was launched in 2019 to set up the digital infrastructure at schools, for example to install the school's own WiFi or to purchase smartboards.
The program has recently been topped up three times: by 500 million to finance IT administrators for the schools, 500 million to purchase office laptops for teachers and a further 500 million to purchase equipment for students in need, so that they can also take part in so-called distance learning in the To enable the corona crisis.
According to the information, 376 million of the 500 million euros for laptops for students have now been accessed.
For the additional programs for IT administrators and teacher laptops, no concrete figures are yet available on the outflow of funds.
They have only been in force since November and January.
Almost 112 million euros of
the
funds from the original digital pact have so far flowed out and nearly 743 million euros approved
.
The program is set to run for five years and will provisionally end in 2024.
Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek (CDU) was satisfied with the development.
It is gratifying that the money from the digital pact is now reaching schools more and more, said Karliczek.
There has been "clear movement in the digitization of schools".
Karliczek also admitted that the pace still had to be made.
The President of the Conference of Ministers of Education, Britta Ernst (SPD), said that the federal states had come a long way in digitizing schools "in a historically exceptional situation."
"That should give politics something to think about"
Critics had repeatedly complained that the digitization of schools, especially in the pandemic and the associated week-long school closings with distance teaching, is proceeding far too slowly.
Schools sometimes complained about high bureaucratic hurdles in order to get the funds.
Against this background, the Association of Education and Upbringing (VBE) praised the fact that the “Digital Pact Train” had finally picked up speed: “We clearly attribute this to the fact that the application regulations were simplified in the wake of the Corona crisis,” said the chairman Udo Beckmann with.
This can also be seen in the immediate program.
The lower-threshold possibility to apply for funds to equip schoolchildren with digital devices is being used overwhelmingly, said Beckmann.
In a third of the duration of the digital pact, three times as much money had been requested by the immediate program: "That should give politicians food for thought." The numbers should lead to the application process being significantly simplified and adapted to the reality of the school, said the head of the association that just means: There is a great need, but no time and rare opportunities to write concepts. "
The education policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group Thomas Sattelberger had already demanded in January: "The ambitious snail's pace must end."
The Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs must impose “a complete moratorium on the entire application bureaucracy with the aim of financed needs and the release of the planned funds for all schools”, especially for digital teaching.
Icon: The mirror
Fok / dpa / AFP
