For many teachers at Bavarian high schools and vocational high schools, digitalization is happening too quickly. This was the result of a recent survey by the Bavarian Philologists’ Association (BPV) among its members. Accordingly, 89 percent of the 3,500 teachers involved would like to see a stronger focus on analogue learning with notebooks or books and fewer digital devices in class. “We don’t want a backwards role in digitalization, but we also don’t want what happened in Sweden and Denmark,” said BPV chairman Michael Schwägerl on Wednesday in Munich.
The Social Democratic Minister for Children and Education in Denmark, Mattias Tesfaye, apologized to Danish children in December for having been made “guinea pigs in a digital experiment whose extent and consequences we cannot understand”. There are many elementary schools there where everyone uses devices and no one uses books anymore. The Danish Ministry of Education subsequently issued twelve “restrictive” recommendations, including a ban on cell phones in schools and the advice to lock up tablets and computers when they are not being used in class. Danish conditions should not exist in Bavaria, said head of philology Schwägerl. The state government must “learn from other people’s mistakes”.
The look at Denmark is relevant because educational politicians are constantly looking at what the Scandinavians are doing due to good PISA results years ago. The timing of this is interesting because Education Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) had just announced that all secondary school students should have a digital device by 2028. The state government gives a subsidy of 350 euros per child; the parents have to pay the rest. Equipment pools for borrowing should be set up for primary and special schools. When presenting the digital package, Stolz said that there would still be no “digitization as an end in itself” in Bavaria. The students are the focus.
The minister sees artificial intelligence (AI) as opportunities for schools to support children individually or to make the work of teachers easier. AI could pre-correct spelling errors in exams. The use of AI should become more of a topic in lessons and be used there. A corresponding training series for teachers is planned.
The BPV survey had long since been evaluated by Stolz at the time of its presentation. But the philologists’ doubts have not been dispelled: From Schschlägerl’s point of view, it starts too early and there are too many unanswered questions: Students should not be given digital devices in the fifth grade, but only from middle school onwards, so that they can prepare themselves “on the level” in the lower grades “Focus on the essentials”. It remains to be seen who maintains these devices and whether one is even sufficient until the 13th grade. The Würzburg headmaster Marco Korn and his high school are taking part in the “KI @school” school experiment and advocated for uniform, data protection-compliant programs, such as a secure version of Chat-GPT – selected, approved and financed by the ministry for all schools.
During the Corona years, schools experienced a surge in digitalization, but teachers are concerned with the question of what to do next. Bavaria must “succeed in its role forward without having to readjust,” said Schwägerl. Schools are neither digital laboratories nor a market for tech companies. This requires concepts for teaching and model schools that try out techniques and methods before everyone else deals with them. Here too, the philologists would like to see a brake: While Stolz already speaks enthusiastically about AI in schools, the model experiment is still ongoing.
More than half of the 3,500 survey participants also wanted stricter rules on cell phone use. The former Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (FW) only relaxed the strict ban on private cell phone use in schools in 2022. Each school should find its own rules. Now BPV teachers are calling for the role to be reversed. Discussing the rule on cell phone use with the school forum – i.e. with students, teachers and parents – takes time and is tedious. Arranging from above is quick and easy. The Augsburg teacher Prisca Hagel and the Würzburg school principal Marco Korn clearly promoted the school forum at the press conference. Strict rules apply at their schools, but they are accepted: cell phones must be switched off between the start of school and the end of school, and playing around during the break is not allowed. The punishments are harsh: anyone who uses their cell phone without permission at Hagel’s school and is caught will receive a reprimand. The device will then be in the office until school ends.
The fact that all young people at secondary schools receive work equipment is fundamentally positive. Currently, people often work with private devices. The temptation is great to scroll through social media, shop or chat, said Hagel. Especially in middle school, students are very distractible due to puberty. People watch football in class or use the tablet as a mirror. “We can only intervene to a limited extent with private devices,” said the teacher. 91 percent of survey participants called this potential for distraction “alarming,” and around half of teachers regularly use digital devices in middle school lessons. Hagel now tries to incorporate elements of surprise and punch lines into her lessons in the fight for the children’s attention.
The warnings about the devices’ potential for distraction “must be taken seriously,” says the Ministry of Culture. Reference is made to the “Digital School of the Future” pilot test, as part of which schools have been testing learning with digital devices for every student since 2022. The positive balance of the test schools is the basis for the digital offensive. All schools could read about experiences and tips on how to deal with distractions in class on the Mebis platform and decide for themselves whether they should start with one-to-one equipment at the lower or middle school level. Middle, junior high and business schools can begin in fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth grade. This should give students time to practice using it.