Munich/Berlin – Almost all of the federal funds available from the Digital Pact for Schools have now been used to expand the digitization of Bavaria’s schools.
The billion mark was exceeded when funds were called, “that’s a milestone,” said Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (free voters) on Wednesday in Munich. In addition, the schools in the Free State still have “considerable” state funds at their disposal to promote IT equipment in schools.
According to the Federal Ministry of Education, the federal digital pact provides funding for Bavaria in the amount of 1.01 billion euros. It was launched in 2019 and totals around 6.5 billion euros. The funding program is intended to advance the technical expansion of the schools and will run until 2024.
“We are making great strides in the digitization of our schools,” emphasized Piazolo. This applies to setting up digital classrooms as well as to the end devices for students. “The next milestone must be 1:1 equipment, which we will already achieve for our teachers this school year. In the near future, every student will also have their own device.”
99 percent of all schools already have fast internet, the ministry said. There are now more than 70,000 digital classrooms. A total of around 560,000 laptops and tablets are available to schools. Since the current school year, all trainee teachers and their seminar teachers have been provided with a tablet, which amounts to 13,000 devices.
“We have already come a long way on the way to the digital school,” said Piazolo. “The billion mark for accessing federal funds is another sound barrier that we have broken.” Every euro invested in IT equipment is an investment in the children’s future.
(dpa)
