Education in Corona Times? A single, widespread political failure!
It’s been a while, in January 2004 to be precise, when we had a big, red button on the cover. A buzzer like the one used in quiz programs. “Restart!” Was the corresponding title line. “How Germany is coming forward again”. In the accompanying cover story, the then editor-in-chief Thomas Vasek wrote the frustration of the soul about a country that has excellent technicians and engineers, but is falling behind technically and economically. A country that finally has to learn again to “love the future”.
Just a quick reminder: In 2004, the bursting of the dot-com bubble was behind us, but the financial crisis was far from foreseeable. State funding and regulation were considered too sluggish and encrusted, disruption was the new magic word and “founding personalities” were the heroes of the hour. But most of them lived in the USA. Germany, on the other hand, was said by many to be a country of complainers, the upholders of property rights and technology enemies. Even then, I thought this assessment was nonsense.
But I can understand the frustration that my colleague Vasek felt at the time. Because in view of the increasing number of infections, the German ministers of education can think of nothing other than to rant about regular airing and to carry the monstrance of face-to-face lessons – until the next lockdown. And then there is howling and the chattering of teeth again and everyone complains in unison that online lessons would deepen the social divide and further reduce the future chances of the already disadvantaged – as if there had not been alternatives to this catastrophe for years.
As if this catastrophe was not announced. As if after the school closings in spring with their catastrophic balance – the same applies, of course, to universities – it was not clear that the digitization of education in Germany must be worked at full speed. Online lessons in 2020 were largely as if the Internet had just been invented in the minds of those responsible, PCs are toys for nerds, and Internet connections only exist in data centers. Is that supposed to be a leading industrial nation in the 21st century? Seriously, that’s ridiculous!
Why is that? The ex-colleague Christian Stöcker, meanwhile Lecturer for “Digital Communication” at the HAW Hamburg, argues in his new book “We are the experiment”that the German educated elite would scandalously flirt with not having the faintest idea of the key technologies of the 21st century. Their policies look accordingly.
I’m afraid he’s absolutely right. But that’s not even the worst. For me, what went on in terms of education policy this year is a gigantic political failure. A blatant scandal, which should actually lead to all science and culture ministers in this country having to resign because of proven incompetence. But the really bitter thing is that this scandal in public does not seem to really interest anyone. I’m pissed? Yes I am. And what? Rightly so!
(Wolfgang Stieler)
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