The plan sounded promising: Exactly one year ago, after schools had presented a digitization concept, the nationwide delivery of a total of 150,000 laptops and tablets to pupils in the first and second grades of middle school and high school began. According to the announcement, the campaign should be completed by the semester break at the latest. But it was to be different: 37,000 students across Austria were still waiting for their devices, in Upper Austria alone 5943 students from a total of 47 schools were affected, the Ministry of Education said when asked by OÖN. All schools that have opted for Windows tablets are affected.
The delay is doubly annoying: The Windows tablets are urgently needed for the subject “Digital Basic Education” – which was considered a compulsory exercise in the previous school year, but will be a compulsory subject in the first four classes of the AHS lower grades and middle school from next Monday .
In addition to mastering the hardware, a wide variety of topics, from IT security to fake news, are to be taught. LH deputy Christine Haberlander (VP) described the subject yesterday at a media event as a “clear sign of the modern, digital school of tomorrow”.
There are several reasons for the late delivery: First, there were problems with the Europe-wide tender, which is why it had to be repeated. And when a large number of the ordered tablets were finally delivered, these “functional defects” appeared.
“As fast as possible”
Last June, Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (VP) therefore announced that the affected students – provided the schools had not ordered any other devices – should receive other, higher-quality device types instead of the Microsoft tablets. According to information from the ministry, these should be Microsoft Surface GO 2 tablets. These should now be delivered “as soon as possible” in the fall. The first deliveries are already planned for the middle of the coming first week of school, and overall the period “due to the volume” will extend over “several weeks”, said a ministry spokesman.
“I find it all very tedious,” said Rudolf Klaffenböck, director of the middle school in Neukirchen am Walde, yesterday. Around 90 of his students from six classes and 16 teachers are affected by the delay. When OÖN informed him yesterday about the new announcement, he was skeptical. “We haven’t received any information yet.” The waiting for a year now has annoyed both students and teachers as well as parents.
Source: Nachrichten
