Distance learning in several federal states – GEW demands better foundations

Snow and ice have not only caused traffic chaos in the northwest of the Federal Republic in recent days but also led to distance learning instead of in-person classes. As early as Friday of last week, students in Lower Saxony stayed home as a precaution or attended emergency care at schools.

On the following Monday, this scenario repeated itself in Lower Saxony, Bremen, and also in North Rhine-Westphalia. While there are few reports of serious technical problems with distance learning, the Education and Science Union (GEW) in NRW is calling for better foundations for this form of teaching.

According to the union, more money must be invested and better concepts presented for distance learning. The technical equipment and the quality of internet access are still too varied – “both at schools and in the households of the learners,” explained the GEW state chairwoman Ayla Celik to the WDR. There is also a lack of time and technical support for teachers, and no uniform or binding quality criteria or didactic guidelines have been established so far.

Distance learning requires reliable infrastructure and binding pedagogical standards, targeted further training, and sustainable support for schools. This must be guaranteed by the state, according to Celik. It is important that distance learning does not lead to a disadvantage for children. In principle, the GEW welcomed the “better safe than sorry” principle in the case of black ice and thus sided with NRW's Minister of Education Dorothee Feller (CDU), who was criticized by the FDP for the school closures.

NRW FDP leader Henning Höne had questioned the statewide closures, citing the corona pandemic, and called for “milder measures,” such as only canceling the first lesson and offering in-person classes without mandatory attendance instead of emergency care.

IServ explains: Everything has gone well so far

As early as Friday, the Braunschweig-based school platform provider IServ reported that distance learning had proceeded without major disruptions. In response to an inquiry from heise online, the company explained that there had been occasional performance issues with some servers operated by the schools, and IServ had assisted in resolving them.

Since the school closures were announced on Thursday, IServ had “provided sufficient capacity at an early stage.” At its peak on Friday, approximately 3,000 video conferences were processed simultaneously, and a total of about 75,000 hours of video conferencing time were accumulated by midday. There was an increase of about 20 percent in support requests. Since the school closure on Monday was communicated on Sunday, IServ had already scaled up capacities again over the weekend for the emergency.

In Hamburg and Rhineland-Palatinate, IServ is used statewide; in Lower Saxony, it is used at about 90 percent of schools. Approximately 6,500 schools nationwide use the service. In the city of Hanover, the move away from IServ is currently being prepared – for a partnership with Microsoft.

(kbe)