Corona & School: Laptops for many teachers only after the end of the pandemic

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If you ask the Berlin school principal Ralf Treptow how many of the teachers at his grammar school received a service laptop during the pandemic, his displeasure with the situation becomes abundantly clear.

The chairman of the Association of Senior Academic Directors in Berlin and director of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Gymnasium has already equipped half of his 110 teachers with tablets.

So far, however, not a single cent of the funds provided by the federal government has been used for this.

The federal government had already promised quick support for teachers in the corona pandemic at an education summit in the Chancellery in August.

At the end of November, the federal and state governments finally agreed on an additional agreement as part of the digital school pact - 500 million euros were to be provided for teacher's laptops alone.

"I hope that teachers' laptops will soon be available everywhere," said Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) at the time.

In case of doubt, this will also help to make distance teaching easier in the corona pandemic.

In practice, however, this has now turned out to be far more complicated than the announcements would suggest at first glance.

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Initially, some federal states took their time to sign the agreement.

It officially only came into force last week, a good two months after the negotiations.

With North Rhine-Westphalia, the last state signed the paper last Tuesday.

In the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Education, the first step was to exclude possible disadvantages that were feared because of a special support program launched in the summer.

In some countries, the agreement also had to be approved not only by the cabinet, but also by parliament.

She would have been happy if the whole thing had gone a little faster, said the Federal Minister of Education during the announcement of the agreement on Wednesday.

“But, and I want to make it clear at this point, despite the lack of signatures, it was possible to start purchasing laptops everywhere.” Big words that Karliczek immediately said: With the “early start of measures”, the federal states would have devices for teachers can invoice retrospectively since June 3rd.

How bureaucracy slows down purchases

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The Berlin school principal Treptow is unimpressed.

He soberly states that he has been the headmaster for too long to rely on such decisions.

In order to make uniform tablets available to his teachers as quickly as possible, he independently financed the devices from the school budget, “saved from the ribs”, as he says.

A tedious and lengthy undertaking, because the budget is tight and has to cover all expenses for the school.

It goes without saying that Treptow asked the school authorities about funds from the digital pact - each time the answer was: "No".

Treptow says: "The digital pact is on paper, but cannot be accessed."

Because schools cannot simply apply for the necessary hardware themselves.

They report their needs to the respective school authorities, who are responsible for equipping the schools.

In the case of public schools, these are usually the cities and municipalities or the districts, in Berlin it is the district.

The school authorities then usually bundle the reports from their schools and submit them to the state.

In addition to organizing the devices, you also have to set up, distribute and later maintain them.

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Source: WELT / Sandra Saatmann

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These are all costly factors that complicate the process.

If equipment is to be procured on a large scale, Europe-wide tenders are also required, which can take a few months.

In addition, the federal states determine in their own funding guidelines how the public funds are to be spent.

Every country does this at its own pace and by no means every country has already adopted such a directive.

But only then can the devices be ordered.

There are also delivery bottlenecks at the manufacturers: Due to the current high demand, the delivery times for laptops and tablets sometimes amount to several months.

Time is of the essence: According to the Berlin Senate Department for Education, 36,000 teachers need a service device in the capital alone.

So far, however, not a single device has been ordered under the new agreement.

In many federal states it looks similarly poor.

The Association of Education and Upbringing (VBE) informed WELT that most of the schools in its 16 regional associations have not yet received any service laptops.

Wherever they exist, “the quota is sobering and in many cases is still below 10 percent”, says Udo Beckmann, Federal Chairman of the VBE.

Bremen stands out positively here: In the city-state, which is often neglected in educational matters, all teachers and trainee teachers have had a service iPad available for several months, according to the Senate for Education.

The Bremen Senate had already initiated the equipment in the summer.

However, the Association of Education and Upbringing considers it unlikely that the situation in the other federal states will relax in the coming weeks Equipment by the end of the calendar year would be an overly optimistic assumption. "

Financially weak municipalities cannot make advance payments

The fact that the devices have been able to be financed retrospectively since the summer also works “badly in most federal states” according to the association.

The municipalities can only make advance payments if they have the financial means.

The Ministry of Culture in Baden-Württemberg states that the school authorities have known since October that they can settle funds retrospectively.

“A number of school authorities” had paid in advance and started to procure service equipment in the fall.

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But financially weak municipalities are often left behind: “With such funding programs, the reality in the federal states and in the municipalities must be considered.

And there are some who simply cannot make advance payments because there is not enough money, ”said the Saarland Education Minister Christine Streichert-Clivot (SPD).

This possibility was apparently not clearly communicated either.

The Ministry of Education in Saarland also states that the school authorities had to place orders at their own risk, “because the exact funding conditions had not been finally clarified until a few days ago.

Such a risky approach has been ruled out for the Saarland in view of the tight budgetary situation of many Saarland municipalities. "

The Ministry of Culture in Saxony has expressed a similar opinion.

“For a long time, the conditions for subsequent refinancing were completely unclear”.

The state expects to be able to take orders for business laptops in May at the earliest.

A full spending of the funds should be aimed for by the end of 2021, but could also be continued in 2022 - at a time when school closings due to pandemic should be a thing of the past.

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