Funding still unclear: rental tablets for pupils in Lower Saxony from 2026

Lower Saxony's new Minister-President, Olaf Lies (SPD), wants to keep an election promise that was made by his predecessor Stephan Weil (SPD) in 2022 and was later included in the coalition agreement. The red-green coalition agreed in 2022 that tablets would gradually be made available to every schoolchild free of charge by the state. However, willingness and ability still seem to be far apart.

In his first government statement on May 20, 2025, Lies spoke of “equipping pupils from year 7 onwards with new tablets as early as the 2026/2027 school year if possible”. He now told dpa: “We want to gradually start providing tablets in the 2026/27 school year.” He went on to explain in more detail how the introduction of tablets is planned, but also had to point out that the funding issue remains unresolved.

Possible introduction from year 7

The SPD's election promise in 2022 was that children should be equipped with rental tablets from Year 1. At the time, Stephan Weil declared: “Progress for all – Education for all: with tablets from year 1, we are creating digital learning freedom!”. In the coalition agreement (PDF) between the SPD and the Greens, the 8th grade was then named for the introduction, with the prospect of successively supplying younger grades. According to Lies, rental tablets would now be available from year 7 onwards. He also gave a reason for this: calculators for math lessons are normally introduced in the seventh grade. By providing tablets with corresponding calculator apps from the state, an additional purchase could be avoided. This makes “organizational, ecological and financial sense.”

A leasing system is planned for the rental devices. The state wants to conclude a contract with a provider for this. Families will not have to pay a rental fee. Once all Year 7 classes have been supplied, the system will be rolled out to the next classes up. Once the system has been fully rolled out, however, pupils in Lower Saxony would have to expect to have to hand in the tablet they have been using up to that point after year 10. According to Lies, the useful life of the devices that are to be issued in Year 7 would probably end in Year 10. According to dpa, it remains to be seen what the state's equipment will look like for pupils who continue after Year 10. There are no details on this.

Money, money, money

So far, there has been a lack of money to implement the election promise. The leasing system could result in annual costs in the three-digit million range for Lower Saxony, it was reported at the end of 2022. The state government is now relying on the Digital Pact 2.0 — which, according to the coalition agreement between the CDU, SPD and CSU, is to come, but is not further outlined there, especially not the financial structure. Lies told dpa: “We will first check whether the digital pact gives us sufficient leeway to introduce the tablets.” This means that families in Lower Saxony may still have to pay for tablets in full, which are often compulsory for pupils from Year 8 onwards. Even with collective orders and discounts, this often means costs of at least 400 euros. As water damage and other equipment damage is not uncommon, schools are also advised to take out appropriate equipment insurance. Families do this in addition to purchasing the usual material lists and specialist books.

In southern Germany, the Bavarian government made up of the CSU and Freie Wähler (Free Voters) has just made good on promises made in the latest coalition agreement. Instead of wanting to equip Bavarian pupils with tablets from the 5th grade onwards, the state government has now postponed this to the 8th grade. Bavaria justified this not with costs, but with a more critical attitude towards digital devices in schools.

(kbe)