Towards the end of September, the video conferencing system that has been announced for a long time should be available in the Hessian school portal.

It is implemented by the Eschborn-based company German Edge Cloud.

With the proven and freely usable tool "Big Blue Button" it was awarded a Europe-wide call for tenders.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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The spokesman for the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday that the period during which unsuccessful bidders could contest the result has expired.

"The matter is now dry." As reported, the first tender had to be repeated after the Telekom subsidiary T-Systems had successfully opposed the result.

Different providers

Minister of Education Alexander Lorz (CDU) had drawn sharp criticism from the opposition for the associated delay.

The first award procedure should put an end to the conditions that have arisen in the course of the pandemic.

The schools used different video conferencing systems to enable digital distance learning.

Many cities and counties acquired appropriate licenses for this.

Other providers left the choice to the individual schools.

The video platforms from different providers also included the products of the American companies Microsoft and Zoom.

Although they did not meet the legal requirements, the Hessian data protection officer granted the schools a transitional period for use.

The state pays any license fees incurred.

The regulations should continue to apply until the schools are connected to the new system, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Education.

In some cases, this could last until the beginning of the second half of the school year.

However, the Hessian school portal, in which the new system will be accessible from the end of next month, is already being used by more than 90 percent of secondary schools.

The ministry said that the introduction of the video conferencing system should not be taken as a sign that distance learning should be available again in the near future.

Regardless of the pandemic, there are many situations in which video conferencing makes sense for students or teachers.