Bitkom Education Conference: Easier to build on ruins

This year's Bitkom Education Conference is critically assessing the current state of the German education system from the outset. Bitkom President Dr. Ralf Wintergerst made it clear that the current education system no longer serves Germany's prosperity. This is evidenced by the chronically disappointing PISA results. Therefore, bringing together “innovations and responsibility” is important.

He particularly highlighted three points for a change of course in education. The equipment of schools must be improved or adapted to modern times. Furthermore, artificial intelligence should be taught and used in schools. And teaching media literacy in educational institutions is particularly important. To achieve this, however, Germany must also work on its pace. While changes are being initiated, other countries are simply faster than the Federal Republic.

Unity, unequal rights, and…

The fact that Bitkom does not see this alone was underscored by the first panel of the day. The title provocatively asked, “Digital in crisis? Rethinking education policy.” As is customary in the educational context, participants were asked to rate the current education system at the beginning. Prof. Dr. Samuel Greiff from the Center for International Student Assessment Studies, Prof. Dr. Susanne Lin-Klitzing, federal chairwoman of the German Philologists' Association, and Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU), Senator for Education, Youth and Family of the State of Berlin, could only grudgingly agree on gradations of “satisfactory” with only partly suppressed grimaces. Amy Kirchhoff from the Federal Student Council, on the other hand, quickly ripped off the band-aid and awarded a mere 6 points – a 4+ (sufficient). The moderator summarized this with a large dose of gallows humor: The system is so bad that at least improvements are still possible. It's a bit like saying: Ruins save us a lot of demolition work, and the new construction is made much easier by the small number of intact buildings we should consider. But it's not that simple.

Bitkom and the initial attendees agree that data-driven school development – as known from Canada, for example – could be a step in the right direction. Student IDs would also be necessary to correctly understand and improve educational trajectories. The curriculum would also need to be put to the test to make room for modern content. Teachers would need to receive corresponding further training so that Kirchhoff's vivid example doesn't happen, where schools have notebooks but teachers can't use them. Data protection could also be adjusted; at least the “one for all” system could be established (one federal state is testing it, others are adopting it). These demands are not new, but due to slow transformation speed, they remain on the to-do list.

The criticism of the fundamental principles was voiced with great emphasis: Germany is still approaching digitalization in the school system incorrectly. Symptoms of this thinking are the DigitalPakt Schule (I) and the new DigitalPakt (2.0). Instead of systematically integrating digitalization into the education system and permanently financing the infrastructure and maintenance, it is still being handled on a project basis and with time-limited funds. Their abundance and design therefore end up on negotiation tables after a short time and are constructed depending on the global situation and federal-state sentiment. Continuity and stabilization are the keywords sought here. To stay with the system's metaphors: A modern school system does not just treat digitality like an after-school club. Digitality, with all its implications, belongs in school development and equipment, as well as in the curriculum, and requires fixed budget items.

The Bitkom Education Conference will take place on April 15 and 16, 2026, and can be followed online.

(kbe)