- eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe: “Digital skills are an essential success factor for Germany as a digital location”.
- eco survey shows: Around 46 per cent of respondents support the promotion of digital skills from primary school onwards
- Children also need to learn how to counter bullying and hate online, say 64 per cent of respondents
The summer holidays are drawing to a close in many federal states in Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is the first federal state to start the new school year in the middle of this week. According to a recent representative survey by eco – Association of the Internet Industry and the market and opinion research company Civey more than three quarters (77.2 per cent) of German citizens want computer science to be made a compulsory subject in Germany. In addition, they believe that dealing with digital media and basic concepts of digitalisation and data protection should also become an integral part of the curriculum.
How children and young people are prepared for the digital world and taught computer science currently varies greatly across the German federal states. Up to now, computer science has only been taught as a compulsory subject from grade 5 (~ 11 years of age) onwards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In NRW, the subject is compulsory in grades 5 and 6, after which it is only optional.
For the majority of Germans, this is too late.
Around 46 per cent of respondents believe that children should be introduced to using digital devices and services for playing and learning between the ages of six and ten. A quarter of the respondents (24.6 per cent) would even teach children digital skills between the ages of three and five.
eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe: “Digital skills are an essential success factor for Germany as a digital location”.
“Digitalisation will continue to decisively shape and, above all, change our society and our economy in the coming decades. Digital skills lead to innovative strength and are therefore essential success factors for the professional success of each and every individual, as well as for the digital sovereignty and competitiveness of Germany as a digital and business location,” says eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe. Access to digital education at all levels of the education system and during all phases of the educational pathway is, therefore, a fundamental prerequisite for the successful digitalisation of the economy as a whole, Rabe continued. “We can only counteract the already prevailing shortage of skilled workers, which many of our member companies, but also user industries in the ICT sector, complain about, by getting school students excited about the topic of digitalisation as early as possible in an age-appropriate manner and by teaching them the basics of digitalisation.”
Dealing with bullying and hate speech online should be taught in school
It is particularly important for the majority of respondents (64.2 per cent) that children learn at school how to counter bullying and hate speech online. 58.7 per cent of the respondents consider safe use of the Internet and initial knowledge of data protection to be relevant. The connection between digitalisation and sustainability is also a relevant topic that needs to be addressed at school. About one-third of the respondents are in favour of an increased focus on this connection in the curriculum.
Digital education as a political task
Particularly during the lockdowns resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic, it became apparent that the German education system is poorly positioned in terms of digitalisation. The digital policy opinion barometer surveyed by eco together with Civey since the formation of the government in April 2022 shows that the topic of digital education is also currently high on the German federal government’s political agenda for many Germans. Currently, around 29 per cent of respondents consider digital education to be one of the most pressing political issues that the German federal government must address.
The values in NRW are the highest in Germany: In fact, 31.4 per cent of those surveyed think that digital education in the country needs to be improved.
Download the graphs:
- Graph 1: Do you think, should computer science become a compulsory subject at German schools?
- Graph 2: At what age should children be introduced to the use of digital devices?
- Graph 3: Which of these topics should be addressed in the new school year?
