The first digital pact was intended to advance the digitization of schools with a total of 6.5 billion euros.
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Berlin The postponement of the so-called “Digital Pact 2.0” for schools by Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) has met with harsh criticism from the federal states and teachers. The program is intended to finance the digitization of schools and replace the first “digital pact”, but is now only planned from 2025.
It was a “fatal signal,” said the President of the Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, to the Handelsblatt. Because it is “not just about a financing gap, but there is also a risk of a longer phase of uncertainty and paralysis”.
In addition, it is completely unclear how the next digital pact will be set up and equipped. “The necessary investments will certainly be postponed or even canceled. It is now taking its toll that the federal, state and local governments have not agreed on a permanent funding basis,” says Meidinger.
The Ministry of Education had previously confirmed that the program would start later. As part of the first “digital pact” in 2019, the federal government provided five billion euros for the construction of schools’ own WLAN or the purchase of interactive boards. During the corona pandemic, the program was then increased three times to a total of 6.5 billion, among other things to also Being able to buy tablets for students and teachers.
In the coalition agreement, the traffic light had announced a “Digital Pact 2.0” with the federal states, which should run until 2030. It is intended to cover the “sustainable new acquisition of hardware, the replacement of outdated technology as well as device maintenance and administration”.
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Despite loud demands from the federal states, there are no concrete plans for this so far. Added to this was the dispute over the federal budget, for which the Stark-Watzinger ministry also had to save heavily in 2024.
Countries sharply criticize
The new President of the Conference of Ministers of Education, Berlin’s Senator for Schools Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU), criticized that the federal government was slowing down the pact. “If the end of the digital pact threatens, the digitization of schools threatens to fail,” she said. The federal government is playing here “not only with the future of the younger generation, but also with the future of Germany as a location for innovation”. The senator judges that this is downright negligent.
A spokeswoman for Stark-Watzinger said that the federal states had already been told at the end of 2022 that funds from a new digital pact would not be available in parallel with the current financing, some of which would last until 2025.
The Education and Science Union (GEW), on the other hand, sees a funding gap that has lasted for months. “Urgently needed investments in the schools will fall behind,” said board member Anja Bensinger-Stolze. The schools need planning security, especially in order to attract IT staff. In addition, the talks about the pact are not transparent, the federal government is withholding information, promises have “turned out to be a vain number”.
Teacher President Meidinger recalled that the traffic light had started as a progressive coalition. “The education minister’s party campaigned with this slogan: Digital first, concerns second.” In view of the savings plans, there is no longer any sign of this.
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