According to the Thuringian Ministry of Education, all teachers in the state should be equipped with a notebook or tablet by the end of June. Did that work? The answer: It's complicated.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - So far, at least 17,000 notebooks and tablets for teachers have been procured in Thuringia from the funds of the so-called digital pact. In view of the around 22,000 teachers in the Free State, that means "a considerable supply," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Education. A total of around 7,000 notebooks and 10,200 tablets were procured. There is also an unknown number of devices that have been procured by the municipalities but have not yet been reported to the ministry.
The ministry announced in March that all teachers should be provided with laptops by the end of June. According to the ministry spokesman, it is currently not possible to say with certainty whether this forecast could be fulfilled. So there were about 5000 devices delivery problems. In addition, in some places the administration and issue of the rental devices to the teachers is not yet complete. "We hope that the summer holidays will continue to be used intensively by the school authorities so that as many teachers as possible can receive their loan equipment," said the spokesman.
The federal and state governments started a program about three years ago to advance digitization in schools in Germany. Over the years, the Digital Pact School has been expanded and provided with more and more money. The reason for this was also the corona pandemic, which sometimes made it necessary to teach in digital space for weeks and months.
From Tuesday, educators will come together in Erfurt for the Thuringian Digital Congress. For three days, they will discuss digitization in schools on site and online. "In Thuringia, many schools have already successfully made their way into the digital future. This development must take place everywhere, everyone involved should get involved and be enthusiastic about it," said Minister of Education Helmut Holter (left) in advance.
