The dispute over the continuation of the school digital pact is escalating. In the guest article, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) commits to the project – and lists the conditions for the tough negotiations to succeed.
Germany has a lot of catching up to do in digital education. The EU’s digital index “DESI”, for example, places the spread of at least basic digital skills in Germany in 22nd place out of 27 in a European comparison. Other technology nations such as Israel or Canada are also further ahead than us. This cannot and should not satisfy us, not least for three reasons:
First: Schools must provide young people with the best tools for a self-determined life and the realization of their potential. A core component of this tool is digital skills. Studies show that applicants’ digital skills are becoming increasingly important when looking for a job – at all qualification levels.
This shows that without teaching digital skills, students will be inadequately prepared for training, studies and jobs. On the other hand, more digital skills bring more opportunities for individual advancement.
Digital concepts make teaching better – and more exciting
Secondly: The Corona pandemic has drastically shown how crucial digital education can be for the delivery of education as a whole. In this extreme case, the alternative to digital teaching and learning methods was often: no education at all. The connection between good digital education and good education is not only evident in extreme cases or in distance learning.
From AI applications to digital learning worlds for students to work together to multimedia content for engaging with learning material: digital concepts and formats offer huge opportunities to make lessons more exciting, individual and instructive.
Third: A current Ifo study shows that a shortage of skilled workers is one of the four biggest negative factors influencing the attractiveness of Germany as a location. 70 percent of European companies, in turn, state that the availability of skilled workers with digital skills is a key influencing factor on investment decisions.
We must address Germany’s current weak growth through an economic turnaround. Strengthening digital education would be an important contribution. It would not only stimulate investment in infrastructure, IT and training capacities for teachers and students, but would also sustainably strengthen Germany’s competitiveness.
Digital Pact 2.0 must not be a copy of the first
The federal and state governments are currently negotiating a Digital Pact 2.0 starting next year. For the federal government and for me personally, strengthening digital education is a very high priority for the reasons mentioned. That is why we are committed to setting up competence centers for digital and digitally supported learning far beyond the federal government’s actual responsibilities. And that is why we want to continue to support the states in their educational policy tasks with a digital pact for schools 2.0.
At the same time, however, one thing is clear to me: Digital Pact 2.0 must not be a copy of the first. We must learn from the experience with the first digital pact in order to achieve sustainable progress for digital education in Germany. The Digital Pact 2.0 will be a success story under three conditions:
A cross-border overall concept: In its assessment of the Digital Pact, the Federal Audit Office rightly stated that the Digital Pact 1.0 was based too much on the budget figures and not on the students’ skills gain. Only on the basis of such a concept, which includes in particular the questions of training and further education of teachers, the standardization of digital standards and technical administration, can it be seriously assessed which resources are required.
An order list for technology is not enough. Science tells us that too. There must therefore be a common understanding of binding, uniform and measurable quality criteria. And it must be checked regularly whether these are achieved. This does not mean that the federal government should specify the uniform criteria. On the contrary: some countries are already further along than others. It is certainly not too much to ask that all countries be measured against their progress.
