Rhineland-Palatinate has hired many new teachers in recent years. And of course they need tablets and laptops in order to be able to design modern digital teaching formats. In order to meet the increased demand, the state is investing its own money and significantly increasing the federal money from the Digital Pact. “All of our teachers – those who are newly hired as well as those who have been with us for a long time – should be given the best conditions to be able to impart good digital education,” said Education Minister Dr. Stefanie Hubig on Monday in Koblenz.
At the Görres High School there, she symbolically handed over devices to four new teachers and at the same time a funding letter to Mayor David Langner. “The DigitalPakt is a success story and we want to continue it,” Hubig continued. “We are happy to use our own state money for this. Because good digital education is not just a future factor. We also ensure that it reaches all students and all teachers.”
Expressed in numbers, this means: Since the 2021/2022 school year, Rhineland-Palatinate has created 1,825 new positions for teachers. After a data comparison, this resulted in a need for a further 1,600 rental devices with a financial volume of just over 610,000 euros. The money for this now comes from two sources: Almost 300,000 euros flow from previously unspent remaining funds from the DigitalPakt School, more precisely from the additional agreement “Loan equipment for teachers”. The state adds the remaining sum of around 313,000 euros from its own budget.
“We definitely need DigitalPakt 2.0”
In the city of Koblenz, where around 120 newly hired teachers were provided with devices, Minister Hubig was able to see for herself how technology leads to good digital education: At the Görres-Gymnasium, a digital pilot school, she visited together with Mayor Langner and headmaster Dr . Ute Mittelberg a digital teaching unit for a 12th grade class in chemistry. “We can see from these teaching examples how the Digital Pact works and has made enormous progress for us,” reported Minister Hubig. “It was and is always important to us that pedagogy comes before technology. We don’t just provide schools with digital equipment, we also offer training and support in the development of pedagogical concepts. This is the only way digital education can ultimately be and remain successful.” The success of the DigitalPakt School also makes it clear that efforts from the federal and state governments will continue to be necessary in the future in order to maintain or expand the standard that has been achieved. “We definitely need DigitalPakt 2.0 and I very much hope that the federal government will make an appropriate financial contribution to it,” said Hubig.
Principal Mittelberg added: We are grateful to our school authorities for equipping our school with digital boards across the board in autumn 2020 and for equipping the teachers with digital devices. Both together form the basis for successful digital teaching. We as a school have e.g. For example, a lot of time and energy is spent on training our teachers during study days so that the new digital equipment can also be used profitably to provide motivating lessons. Our students currently have iPads from the second half of the 9th grade onwards, which the school authorities provide free of charge. Our specialist conferences develop extensions to the didactic concept in order to make the equipment useful for our students’ independent work in class and beyond.”
7.76 million euros from the DigitalPakt for Koblenz
With the additional remaining funds of 100,000 euros, the city of Koblenz, as a school authority, will receive a total of almost 7.76 million euros from the DigitalPakt. Mayor Langner was happy to accept the funding decision from the minister and said: “Equipping teachers with digital devices is logical, because students can expect to receive meaningful digital lessons these days. The city of Koblenz is dedicated to configuring the devices and also provides support for the state’s employees.”
A total of around 240 million euros in federal funds are available for Rhineland-Palatinate in the DigitalPakt School, which is to be topped up with the school authorities’ own ten percent contribution. This supports digitalization measures. As the state’s development bank, the Investment and Structural Bank (ISB) processes the applications that a total of 400 providers were able to submit for 1,600 schools in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The photo (Ministry of Education/Christian Tuldi) shows, from left, Headmistress Mittelberg, Mayor Langner, Minister Hubig and the Koblenz Department of Education and Culture Ingo Schneider.
2024-03-04 21:15:25
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