A broad alliance of the federal student conference, the federal parent council and the digital association Bitkom demands a right to digital education.

The right to digital participation in school lessons and other educational offers must be enforceable, the three organizations said on Thursday in Berlin.

"There is no need to change the Basic Law for this," said Bitkom President Achim Berg.

The right should not only relate to school operations, but also to universities and further education opportunities.

Berg pointed out that children and young people have a right to school education.

“The reality of the pandemic was different: instead of distance learning, in many cases there were no lessons at all.

There are no nationwide minimum standards and there is also no long-term financing concept.”

It is not a question of replacing school attendance on site, but of flanking it with an additional offer.

"Pupils have a right to education even if they are ill or cannot attend classes for other reasons," said Katharina Swinka, General Secretary of the Federal Student Conference.

Simplify implementation of the digital pact

Christiane Gotte, Chairwoman of the Federal Parents' Council, complained that there was not only a lack of technical equipment during the pandemic.

“There were also no minimum pedagogical standards set for distance learning.

As a result, there was no nationwide, high-quality distance learning in Germany.” The aim must be to prevent deficits from arising in the first place.

"A right to digital education can definitely contribute to this, in which participation is ensured in advance where physical presence is not possible, after the pandemic, for example through digital training in the event of canceled classes or illness."

A legal opinion by the law firm Redeker Sellner Dahs commissioned by Bitkom came to the conclusion that neither the Basic Law nor the state constitutions would have to be changed for a right to digital education.

The requirements of the Basic Law do not conflict with the new claim, provided that the principle of face-to-face teaching is not questioned, but supplemented.

The Federal Constitutional Court also argued in this way in the context of the pandemic protection measures and advocated a right to digital education.

"But outside of the pandemic situation, the right has not yet existed," said expert Cornelius Böllhoff.

The three organizations were unanimous in favor of simplifying the implementation of the digital pact for schools.

Schools and school authorities often failed because of the bureaucratic hurdles, above all because of the required creation of complicated media plans.

Around three years after the start of the program for the digitization of Germany's schools, only around 1.2 billion euros have now been spent.