• Total network grows to 116 pioneering schools for digital education
• Green Smart Schools also awarded for digitalisation and sustainability for the first time

Digital school and teaching concepts, a fast and reliable digital infrastructure, teachers with digital competence: A large number of digital pioneer schools in Germany are already implementing these three pillars in an exemplary manner, thus creating the basis for a modern, digital education for their students. The digital association Bitkom awarded 15 such pioneering schools the “Smart School” award today, Thursday, including for the first time a German school abroad. Bitkom made the announcement during its two-day education conference. “The digital wheel does not have to be reinvented at every school. Our Smart Schools show how to successfully digitalise teaching. And they show what is possible when school authorities and school management, pupils and parents work well together on digitalisation,” says Bitkom President Achim Berg.

For the first time, Bitkom also honoured five schools as “Green Smart Schools” because they have tackled digitisation and sustainability together and successfully combined both goals. Among other things, they succeeded in reducing the gas consumption at their school by means of an app and data analysis or in extending the life of end devices by means of repair, recycling or upcycling. Berg: “The Green Smart Schools show that it is possible to master these two important transformations in harmony. All other schools can learn from them.”

The awarded Smart Schools at a glance:

Baden-Württemberg:

Carl-Theodor-Schule Schwetzingen (Green Smart School).

Zeppelin-Gewerbeschule Konstanz (Green Smart School).

Bavaria:

Röthenbach An der Seespitze Primary School

Berlin:

Freie Schule Anne-Sophie

Lower Saxony:

Gymnasium an der Willmsstraße Delmenhorst.

Gymnasium “In der Wüste” Osnabrück (Green Smart School)

Max-Planck-Gymnasium Göttingen (Green Smart School)

Oberschule am Sonnensee Bissendorf with grammar school

North Rhine-Westphalia:

Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Stadtlohn

GGS Löwenburg Bad Honnef

Käthe Kollwitz Comprehensive School Lünen

KHS St. Benedikt Düsseldorf (Green Smart School)

Saxony:

Dresden-Pieschen Grammar School

Schleswig-Holstein:

Till-Eulenspiegel-School Mölln

USA:

German International School of the Silicon Valley Mountain View

From primary school to grammar school and vocational school: with the 15 new Smart Schools, the Smart School network grows to a total of 116 locations. The first were awarded in 2016 as part of the Federal Government’s National IT Summit, the competition is supported by Deutsche Telekom, among others. The goal is to further strengthen the nationwide network of Smart Schools and thus help other schools to successfully digitise themselves through practical examples.

More information on the Smart Schools here: https://www.bitkom.org/Smart-School