Rhineland-Palatinate Education Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) is not lowering her call for a rapid continuation of the school digital pact. “We need this continuation, because additional funding is necessary to maintain the level of the digital infrastructure and to develop it further for the future,” Hubig stressed in Mainz on Monday. The federal government is responsible for financing the Digital Pact 2.0.
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The education minister spoke of a task for society as a whole. The states and the conference of education ministers agree on this. Hubig warned that it was important to make a quick decision on whether to continue the funding programme. School authorities needed planning security. For months, the states have been pressing the federal government for clarity on how to finance the planned new version of the one billion dollar funding programme. The KMK is calling on the federal government to provide at least 1.3 billion euros annually from 2025 to further develop the funding and digital infrastructure.
“Students who needed a device received a device”
Hubig said that in Rhineland-Palatinate, more than 460 million euros have flowed into digital education since 2019. Of this, around 313 million euros came from the school digital pact and another 120 million euros from state funds. The school authorities have invested a lot of money in this. The digital pact ended in May. However, the projects will still be billed. “We used up the money from the digital pact, we have no money left.”
Eckart Lesch, head of the school department in the city of Mainz, called the digital agreement an important step, but it could only be the beginning of a long process of digitizing schools. According to him, all public schools in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital are equipped with broadband and WiFi across the board. Around 19,000 mobile devices as well as more than 800 smartboards and projectors are in use. Overall, it can be assumed that all teachers in Rhineland-Palatinate have a laptop or tablet and all students who need a device have also received one from their school authority, the education minister said.
School digitization is not a “nice to have”
The Education and Science Association (GEW) in Rhineland-Palatinate demanded that the funds received from the Digital Pact should be made permanent. At the request of the German Press Agency, the GEW said that school digitalization is not a “nice to have”, but a task for the future. Schools and school authorities need planning security, for example if they want to recruit staff for IT administration. The association warned that the financial resources needed from the federal government to comply with the debt brake could fall victim to possible cuts. If the programs continue, it is important that they primarily go to disadvantaged schools or financially weak municipalities.
The teaching of digital skills is increasingly becoming a key qualification for a successful professional life, stressed Karsten Tacke, general manager of the State Association of Business Associations. It is therefore important that these skills are taught as early as possible. The digitalization of schools is the basis for this, Tacke said. Therefore, the federal and state governments should ensure sustainable follow-up funding as soon as possible.
Jenny Groß, education expert from the CDU parliamentary group, also warned that follow-up financing for the funding program should be available immediately. The week-long struggle to find a compromise is upsetting and leads to frustration and anger in schools. “Here we see the Rhineland-Palatinate traffic light as a duty to influence our traffic light colleagues in the federal government,” the opposition politician stressed. The country must also get involved quickly in the stabilization of digital equipment and the training of teachers. This is the only way the topic of digitalization can be implemented in a practically meaningful way in the long term.
(Are)
