The federal and state governments are launching an immediate investment programme to procure mobile devices for schoolchildren. "We must not allow the coronavirus crisis to become an educational crisis," said Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek.
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The federal and state governments have agreed on a contingency programme to ensure better e-learning. The programme is worth 550 million euros, with the funds to be used to procure mobile devices for schoolchildren. The schools are also to be better equipped to enable them to provide professional online teaching.
Since, for the foreseeable future, schooling is going to involve a mix of classroom teaching and e-learning at home, explained Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek, "Ideally every student must have a digital device at their disposal at home." To this end, the federal government will be investing an addition 500 million euros, while the federal states are to invest 50 million euros.
The plan is for schools and school authorities to lend the mobile devices to students. The devices will remain the property of the schools, which will be able to use them later for regular classroom teaching. The contingency programme takes the form of a supplementary agreement to the Digital Compact for Schools.
Find out more about the contingency programme here.