Former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, who now heads the non-profit Deutsche Telekom Foundation, expressed his pessimism about the future of education in Germany. De Maizière argued that the education system was in ruins and could not be reformed. At the online education conference of the IT industry association Bitkom, he demanded that federal and state governments work on a project for the digitization of the education sector. He emphasized that “multi-professional teams” are necessary, so that not only the “IT people” are held responsible for everything.
A concept is needed to use digital instruments in classrooms “even without Corona,” said de Maizière. He called for a “fundamental reform process” and criticized the federal government for unilaterally advertising competence centers for digital education while federal states largely ignored the education summit of the Federal Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger.
Jens Brandenburg, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, recognized that, despite extensive investments, politicians have not managed to master all the challenges of education policy and achieve a turnaround. With the now project-bound 80 percent of the available 5 billion euros, at least a “big race to catch up” has been achieved.
Brandenburg reported that the federal government is starting with the MINT subjects and wants to advance teacher training. It also wants to get the municipal side and civil society more involved. It is important to pull together “across all federal levels.” The federal government wants to talk about “the legal basis” and a possible change to Article 104c of the Basic Law on federal financial aid for the states relating to “investments that are important for the state as a whole” to expand the educational infrastructure.
Hamburg’s education senator Ties Rabe emphasized that the federal states reject an amendment to the Basic Law, as the federal government is already financing the competence centers alone. Rabe argued that the federal states should make progress in taking teachers with them. Digitization of schools is more than changing the cash register at the shop around the corner. Claudia Alsdorf from Microsoft Germany promoted the inclusion of new tools based on artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, in everyday school life. These tools could help with learning languages, lesson planning, or checking sources.
In conclusion, the education system in Germany needs a fundamental reform. The digitization of the education sector is crucial, and multi-professional teams are necessary to achieve this goal. The federal and state governments need to work together to implement nationwide uniform minimum standards for technical equipment and pedagogical concepts. Though progress has been made, more needs to be done to address the challenges of education policy, and greater efforts are necessary to ensure that students and teachers can thrive in the digital age.
