The federal government is providing a total of 5 billion euros from the Digital Pact for Schools for the period 2019 to 2024, of which the state of Baden-Württemberg will receive 650 million euros. For the district as a school authority, this means a funding amount of 5.63 million euros with an own contribution of 20 percent, meaning that the district will receive 4.5 million euros in funding from the DigitalPakt Schule. The budgets, which were reserved for the school authorities until April 30, were formed on the basis of pupil numbers. As the school authority, the district applied to L-Bank for funding by this deadline.
One of the application requirements was the submission of a media development plan containing an inventory of the existing and required equipment, a technical and educational deployment concept and a needs-based training plan for teachers. Among other things, investments in the development or improvement of digital infrastructure in schools (digital networking / cabling in school buildings), W-LAN, display and interaction devices, digital work equipment, local school server solutions and investments in mobile devices are eligible for funding.
At the beginning of December, the district received the grant notifications for 4.5 million euros and can call up the funds in the new year. The funding will benefit all vocational schools and special education and counseling centers (SBBZ). The money will be distributed according to pupil numbers.
As the school authority, the Ludwigsburg district has promised the schools that the media development plans will be implemented - regardless of whether and to what extent funding is available from the Digital Pact. It has budgeted almost 17 million euros for digitalization in schools up to 2024. By the time the DigitalPakt application was submitted in April 2022, around 8 million euros had been spent on digitalization. Funding of 460,454 euros has already been drawn down this year from the additional ITAdmin program, including for the commissioning of external IT administrators - the state provided a flat-rate contribution of 10 percent.
The remaining funds from the DigitalPakt are to be distributed by March 31, 2023. Further funding can still be applied for here.
