Education – The pitfalls of digitization – Fürstenfeldbruck

Hybrid lessons? Schooling at home in front of the computer? In Corona times, virtual lessons are considered an alternative, but digitization is far from that advanced in many places. Not even in the district. There is a lack of digital infrastructure and equipment. “Sadly, the Green District Councilor Christian Stangl now states that a pandemic was necessary” to see the distress Germany is in. “Digitization in this country is” at the level of Moldova. “So very low, the former wants High school teachers are saying it and that is why one is “so terribly dependent on face-to-face teaching” in the Corona crisis.

“We are lacking at all ends,” said District Finance Officer Johann Thurner (FW) on the situation in Germany. “We would have to step on the gas a lot more with digitization and not bureaucratize everything!” Five years ago he was in Estonia, which “was already 200 percent ahead of us back then”. Of course, it is better if it goes faster, says the new CSU district councilor Bettina Betz, who is the professional head of the Bruck school authority. But the tenders would take their time. She is optimistic: You can be sure that the schools are well looked after.

A year and a half ago, major politicians started their digitization offensive for schools, but it cannot be implemented that quickly. The distribution mechanisms of the money are complicated, there is a so-called digital pact and a digital budget, one is contributed by the federal government and the other by the Free State of Bavaria. The municipal administrations can now discard the packages and try to find answers: What can be purchased from which grant program? What can also be included retrospectively? When did the time for the implementation of the measures run out? The municipal authorities, as so-called material cost carriers, have to adhere to various deadlines and state: “Calling up funds from the digital package is relatively expensive.” This is what it says in the district administration’s documents, which were handed out to the members of the district culture committee for ongoing budget discussions.

Each school had to create its own media concept in advance. In order to receive the government grants, the district must submit an investment plan for the digital purchases. In order to actually benefit from the funding, the corresponding measures must be assigned to the correct funding programs. The district has to make an advance financial payment every time. District councilor Thurner had reprimanded the complicated procedure several times in the meetings of the district committees.

The district has a total of 8.5 million euros at its disposal for its 18 schools (grammar schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, technical and vocational high schools, support centers) to advance digitization in the classroom. He has to raise ten percent of the sum himself, the rest comes from the digital pact and digital budget and a “special loan device budget” that was also issued as a result of the corona pandemic. The money will be used to set up WiFi in the schools, for digital large-screen projections via beamers, document cameras, interactive boards and the new integrated specialist classrooms at the vocational school.

Mobile devices, i.e. PCs or tablets, are subsidized by the state if they do not exceed 20 percent of the total investment volume of the district or 25,000 euros per school. According to Günter Sigl, head of the school department in the district administration, a thousand such loan devices have already been purchased, and another 350 would follow. In the end, 15 percent of the students will be provided with such loan devices. The only question that remains is: What does the rest do? In total, the secondary schools in the district are attended by 15,000 pupils.

What about the teachers? There is a funding program from the Free State for this, says Christian Stangl. But isn’t it actually up to the employer to make the service equipment available: “If teachers don’t have the equipment, how are they supposed to teach the students?”

And who actually pays for it when hardware and software have to be renewed? In the past, when you screwed a board to the wall and then replaced it after 30 years, it was still easy, says SPD district councilor Andreas Magg. But he is worried who will pay to change computers after three or four years. In addition, “all devices need support”, but skilled workers are difficult to find. There are three employees for the IT service of the secondary schools in the district office, a fourth position would be applied for next year, says department head Sigl.

And because so much is being looked at into neighboring countries during this discussion, District Administrator Thomas Karmasin (CSU) also adds another aspect. In Fürstenfeldbruck’s Italian twin town Cerveteri, an acquaintance told him that the teachers had to “get the stuff for video teaching themselves”. Everything is relative. “We complain at a high level.”

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