The digitisation of German schools continues to lag behind its potential. According to a new survey by the digital association BITKOM (https://www.bitkom.org), 87 per cent of pupils describe poor or missing WLAN as the most urgent problem – well ahead of the lack of teachers at 59 per cent. Third on the list of shortcomings is poor technical equipment (56 per cent).
Outdated learning content
Other urgent problems cited are the way teachers treat each other (51 per cent) and the cancellation of lessons (49 per cent). For almost half of the students, the most urgent problems are the insufficient use of digital devices and educational media as well as overcrowded classes (46 percent), followed by incompetent teachers (37 percent), outdated learning content (26 percent) and broken school buildings (20 percent).
The use of digital educational media such as learning platforms could increase motivation (74 percent) or improve school grades (56 percent). Only 13 percent do not want to learn with digital educational media. Two-thirds of the students are of the opinion that the technical equipment at their school needs to be improved. 62 percent consider the educational media available to them to be outdated.
Computer science not a compulsory subject
In only 43 percent of the cases is the design and implementation of websites part of the curriculum. Technical basics such as programming languages are taught by 42 percent. Only very few (24 per cent) come into contact with technological developments such as AI or big data in the classroom. When it comes to producing and publishing digital content such as videos for YouTube, the figure is 23 per cent.
However, according to the survey, 61 per cent of students also want to learn how to repair or build devices at school. Students are also further along than schools when it comes to introducing a compulsory subject of computer science for grades 5 to 10: Two-thirds (66 percent) think such a compulsory subject of computer science is a good idea, only ten percent think it is a bad idea, and one in five (21 percent) have no preference here.
