“Hesse’s students will find good learning conditions at the start of school. We are ready to go,” said Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus at the Lichtenberg School in Darmstadt. There she celebrated with around 200 fifth-graders who will be enrolled in seven classes. Across Hesse, a total of 810,000 students will attend 1,810 public schools in the 2024/2025 school year. There are more than 65,000 teachers available.
“The first day of school at secondary school is something special. New surroundings, new teachers, new classmates and new subjects. And at the Lichtenberg School, some subjects are even taught bilingually,” said Sinemus, wishing the students all the best for their start at the Lichtenberg School. Headmaster Wolfgang Naumann added: “We try to create a learning space for the students in which they can learn without fear and make mistakes in order to learn from them. Here they should develop their personality and adopt European values such as equality, justice, tolerance and solidarity through respectful interaction with one another.”
Focus on digital education
The Digital Minister emphasized that digital technologies and the use of them have become an important part of our everyday lives. “It is therefore all the more important that you learn how to use these new opportunities responsibly. Hesse is making consistent progress on the path of digital education. We are giving our students the tools they need today so that they are well positioned for their careers tomorrow,” said Sinemus. Connecting schools to the fast network is also a top priority in Hesse. 97 percent of the facilities are currently connected to gigabit capability, the Lichtenberg School has a fiber optic connection and stable WiFi in all buildings. Sinemus also announced that the digital truck, which has been offering workshops on programming and robotics at primary schools for three years on behalf of the Ministry of Digital and Education, will now be expanded to include fifth and sixth grades and supplemented by workshops on artificial intelligence. In the successful school trial with the new subject “Digital World”, 80 schools in fifth and sixth grades are now taking part, instead of 64. There are plans to expand the program to seventh grade. Almost 25,000 teachers have recently taken part in training courses in digitalization and media education.
Career orientation is strengthened – internship exchange for companies and students
The Hessian state government has also put together a large package to ensure that Hesse’s students find optimal educational conditions. The Digital Minister pointed out that career orientation will be strengthened in the new school year so that the path to a career is easier through practical experience and testing personal interests. To ensure that young people and companies can find each other more quickly and easily, the Ministry of Education is currently preparing a digital internship exchange on the Internet to make it easier for students to find an internship in their respective region. It is a supplement to existing offers such as those from chambers and associations and also the Federal Employment Agency. “With the internship exchange, the state government wants to further strengthen and simplify cooperation with business and craft businesses,” said Sinemus. This initiative is part of activities such as the planned Crafts Day and the internship weeks that took place for the first time this summer vacation, in which more than 5,000 young people and around 1,400 companies took part.
More teaching materials for democratic education
The teaching of values will also be further strengthened in the coming school year. In view of increasing polarization, misinformation and dangerous trends in social media, right-wing agitation, anti-Semitism and extremism, as well as from the Islamist area, teaching values, learning about democracy and preventing violence are particularly important for the competence development of all students. To this end, existing measures, projects and advisory services (such as those offered by the Youth and Media Advisory Center in Hesse) will be further intensified and new or expanded teaching materials will be made available – such as the successful manual for teachers “Clarity of fundamental rights, teaching values, education in democracy”. The training opportunities for teachers will also be expanded. “It is important for all students to deal with respectful interaction with one another, democratic values and the importance of freedom of expression,” said the minister.
