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Elementary school students at homeschooling (symbolic image):
Photo: UJ Alexander / IMAGO
The Federal Student Conference, the Federal Parents' Council and the digital association Bitkom are pushing for the political consequences of the corona pandemic.
Together, the alliance demands a right to digital education.
The right to digital participation in school lessons and other educational offers must be enforceable, the three organizations said on Thursday in Berlin.
Bitkom President Achim Berg pointed out that children and young people have a right to school education.
»The reality of the pandemic was different: instead of distance learning, in many cases there were no lessons at all.
There are no nationwide minimum standards and there is also no long-term financing concept.«
It is not a question of replacing school attendance on site, but of flanking it with an additional offer.
"Pupils also have a right to education if they are ill or cannot attend classes for other reasons," said Katharina Swinka, General Secretary of the Federal Student Conference.
Christiane Gotte, Chairwoman of the Federal Parents' Council, complained that there was not only a lack of technical equipment during the pandemic.
“There were also no minimum pedagogical standards for distance learning.
As a result, there was no nationwide, high-quality distance learning in Germany.« The aim must be to prevent deficits from arising in the first place.
»A right to digital education can definitely contribute to this by ensuring participation in advance where presence is not possible, after the pandemic, for example through digital training in the event of canceled classes or illness.«
A legal opinion by the law firm Redeker Sellner Dahs commissioned by Bitkom came to the conclusion that neither the Basic Law nor the state constitutions would have to be changed for a right to digital education.
The requirements of the Basic Law do not conflict with the new claim, provided that the principle of face-to-face teaching is not questioned, but supplemented.
The right should not only relate to school operations, but also to universities and further education opportunities.
The Federal Constitutional Court also argued in this way in the context of the pandemic protection measures and advocated a right to digital education.
"But outside of the pandemic situation, there is no right so far," said expert Cornelius Böllhoff.
The Federal Chairman of the Education and Training Association (VBE), Udo Beckmann, said after the presentation of the report that no such legal claim was necessary.
The fundamental legal right to education formulated by the Federal Constitutional Court is decisive.
It needs to be clarified what "good" education is.
This standard would then apply to all educational offerings, whether analogue or digital.
Both the VBE and the three organizations spoke out in favor of improved digitization in schools.
The implementation of the digital pact for schools must be simplified, it said when the legal opinion was presented.
Schools and school authorities often failed because of the bureaucratic hurdles, above all because of the required creation of complicated media plans.
Around three years after the start of the program for the digitization of Germany's schools, just under ten percent of the five billion euros were spent.
sun/dpa
