New IT equipment for schools in Bern costs almost 22 million francs

The city of Bern wants to upgrade its school IT system for 21.8 million francs. After the city council approves the loan, the people will probably be asked in February 2025. The city of Bern is already looking for suppliers of iPads and network devices.

The city of Bern wants to upgrade the school’s IT platform and the related infrastructure. The responsible Directorate of Education, Sports and Social Affairs is applying for a loan of 21.8 million francs for the corresponding “Project Wesp” (where “Wesp” means “More Platform Development School Information”). The largest item of this (14.7 million francs) is intended for related hardware and software and their licenses. Broken down specifically, there are 8 million francs for hardware and software for students, 4.35 million francs for products for teachers and 2.35 million francs for digital components in classrooms.

According to the project documents, the city of Bern needs 1.2 million francs for the “participation and empowerment” item. 900,000 francs of this is earmarked for “training offers, empowering workers, supporting digital transformation and prevention in schools”.

The city is budgeting another million for external services. Of this, approximately 200,000 francs go to project management and 150,000 francs to “external services”. The remaining 2 million francs is a reserve of 10 percent.

Beyond bitter

The city of Bern is using “Project Wesp” not only to upgrade but also to increase the number of devices. In particular, more tools should be available to students. For example, in the 3rd and 4th grades, two children share a table. In the future, every child should have their own device. We are also investigating whether students in grades 7 to 9 should receive notebooks instead of tablets in the future. Notebooks are best suited for teaching at this school level, according to the documents.

Recently things have become quiet about the school IT system in the city of Bern. But just a few years ago things were different. At the time, the school platform Base4kids2 started in the town made headlines – and not good ones. Base4kids2 should be a solution based on open source components. But when it was in practice it was clear that the project had failed. Today – and additional loan later – Base4kids2 runs, but depends on proprietary components, ie products from Microsoft or Apple. After that, the supervisory commission of the city council of Bern took a hard line against Base4kids2 and theirs Those who are responsible, as you can read here.

But regarding the upcoming “Project Wesp”, the city council’s advisory commission is confident: They were able to convince themselves that “the lessons learned from the problematic introduction of Base4kids2 have been taken -into this project and, with the existing external consortium. project management, “The prerequisites for the successful implementation of this IT project are met: basic, early involvement of all people affected by the project, close cooperation with all organizations administration involved, the necessary resources provided, the clear separation of the client and contractor as well as comprehensive quality and risk management,” they write in a release. Therefore, they are confident that the infrastructure will take Implement new IT from the 2025/2026 school year.

The optimistic commission unanimously supported the loan of almost 22 million francs. The town council largely shared their hope. He voted 67 yes to 3 no for the project. What is needed now are the Bernese voters: “Project Wesp” is expected to come to the ballot box in February 2025, according to the statement. If voters approve the proposal, the public offering for the hardware could be made as early as summer 2025, according to the draft voting message.

Wanted: iPads, cases, network components

The city of Bern will not be idle until then. She is already looking for hardware suppliers for school work on the procurement platform “simap.ch”. One offer is specifically about “hardware in the form of Apple iPads and hardware in the form of accessories for iPads”, dividing the tablets and accessories into two lots. The city is estimated to need 11,900 iPads , according to the offer. The city wants to get these through a lease or purchase model. The city wants to buy the devices in stages between 2025 and 2030. It should be a goal for the students and the teachers to use the hardware devices for at least one whole cycling period of stability,” he says in the documents. Also wanted are keyboards or iPad cases.

In the second offer, the city of Bern is looking for network components such as WLAN access points and access switches. According to the offer, all network devices currently in use in the Bern school buildings will be replaced. According to the specifications, there are a little more than 2,400 devices. The successful bidder will not only have to deliver and install the new equipment, but also dispose of the old ones.

As part of the “Data Excellence” program, the city of Bern wants to expand its digital public service and make its data management more efficient. The Bernese applied for this purpose The local council received a loan of 1.4 million francs in February 2024. Read more about it here.