It got particularly bad shortly before the summer vacation. Two days before the students were due to receive their certificates, suddenly nothing worked. The program, which was supposed to do everything better, reported data errors. The printers remained silent. As is so often the case – regardless of whether it was the transmission of the data to the school authorities or the registration of a sibling. “It’s like when you get a car delivered without windows and indicators and have other parts to follow,” says a teacher.
“ASV” is the keyword behind it, for “official school administration”. Because the system that was supposed to make life easier for the headmasters and teachers is still working to a limited extent 16 years after the start of the project. At the same time, the costs have risen from eleven million to 280 million euros. Now the opposition is demanding clarification. “General overhaul of the failed major school IT project ASV / ASD” is the title of the non-partisan application that is to be dealt with on Thursday in the education committee.
Specifically, the Greens, SPD and FDP are calling for an independent evaluation of the program. The system administrators of the individual schools should also contribute to this. These should answer the question of which modules are obsolete and which are still required for a smooth, user-friendly application in the future. “We have to know what the problem is and what the schools will need in the future,” says the education spokeswoman for the Greens, Gabriele Triebel.
The Supreme Audit Office found significant shortcomings
With the application, she and her colleagues are following the recommendation of a report by the Supreme Court of Auditors from the spring. This can confidently be described as devastating. The deficiencies in project management are “significant”, relevant guidelines have “not been observed”, and economic studies for the entire project have “not been carried out”, judge the auditors.
Everything should be better with the new system when that authority determined in 2004 that it was time for proper digital administration in schools. Three years later, ISB AG, based in Stuttgart, was awarded the contract. Student names, grades, timetables – all of this should be easy to access in real time. But the administrative revolution turned into a grave of millions. Matthias Fischbach (FDP) says that the project was accepted by the Ministry of Culture for years, although it did not work: He calls the project management “hair-raising” and “irresponsible”.
Three quarters of an hour for a reset – “that was a click before”
The result of the processes can be seen on YouTube. A man uploaded several videos explaining how to use the system. In 42 minutes he explains how to enter the information that a student is repeating the class. “That was a click before,” says the teacher, who also struggled with the certificates.
Criticism that has long since reached the Ministry of Culture. They take the criticism very seriously, they say. However, the application is based on incorrect assumptions. He completely misunderstood, according to a spokesman, that the software “supports school administrations to a great extent in their daily work.” She ensures that the large amount of school data can be statistically collected and evaluated “safely, with high quality and significantly faster than before”.