Survey: schools ill-prepared for new technologies
According to a survey, the population and parents are more than skeptical about whether schools in germany are prepared for possible renewed corona-related lockdowns. Baden-wurttemberg was the last state to start the new school year on monday.
The digital industry association bitkom published a representative survey on the same day. The burgers gave it an average grade of only 4.3 when asked how prepared they thought schools would be to maintain classes in the event of another lockdown. Parents of school-age children even awarded only a "poor" (4.6).
In the opinion of the federal commissioner for digitalization, minister of state dorothee bar (CSU), not enough has been done in the past few months. "The corona crisis has awakened, yet too little has happened in recent months," bar told the german press agency on monday. "We were not really better prepared for a second lockdown."There are positive individual examples and individual initiatives, but on the whole, families will again face similar difficulties in the event of school closures as they did in the spring.
However, there was some movement on monday on the subject of digital school and learning material: a new media library financed by the federal government and the federal states with films, audios, images, worksheets and digital learning units went online. At the start, there were around 30 entries on the MUNDO platform.000 media ready, as the responsible U institut fur film und bild in grunwald near munich announced.
The corona pandemic has once again underscored the importance of these educational materials for successful digital education in germany, said federal education minister anja karliczek (CDU). With the cross-state project, they have now been made available to all federal states. The german philologists’ association, which represents grammar school teachers, welcomed this: "things are clearly moving forward in this respect," said chairwoman susanne lin-klitzing on monday.
According to the bitkom survey, which was conducted in august, the status of digitalization (devices, internet connection or digital teaching content) at schools is only rated as "sufficient" (4.2 parents, 4.2 all respondents).
According to the survey, there are virtually no opponents of digitization: only three percent believe that digital technologies such as computers or tablets should have no place in schools. A rough majority, however, is in favor of computers, smartboards or tablets being standard in all schools (88 percent, parents 93 percent). In addition, the vast majority of respondents think it is important that all schools are equipped with laptops or tablets and that teachers receive regular training in digital skills.
"It’s not enough to pay attention to hygiene and distance when teaching presences. Schools must become digitally fit," said thomas sattelberger, education policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group in the bundestag. There need to be serious learning platforms, digitally trained teachers and state-funded hardware for all schools.
Bar criticized federalism "as it is currently functioning in the field of education" as a "real stumbling block". Each federal state is responsible for education in germany. The digital state minister called for more efficiency. "It makes no sense for every federal state to reinvent the wheel."It is not worthy of our country that we are lagging so far behind in digital education."
There is no shortage of money at the moment, but it takes time for the funds to reach the schools. 5.5 billion euros are available for technical modernization through the school digital pact, including the installation of schools’ own WLAN and the purchase of interactive whiteboards. In addition, in the corona crisis, 500 million euros will be made available for loan laptops for needy schools, and there will also be 500 million euros for service equipment for teachers.
