New deputy director Häusler: Digitalization as the key to the future in Oberding!

New deputy director Häusler: Digitalization as the key to the future in Oberding!

There is a new wind at primary and middle schools in Oberding. Florian Häusler was introduced as the new deputy director, succeeding Dagmar Burger, who is going into well-deserved retirement at the end of the year. Mayor Bernhard Mücke used the opportunity to point out the challenges in school policy and to criticize the state government. He criticized the fact that many municipalities, in contrast to Oberding, cannot afford to be fully equipped with digital devices.

“We have been equipping our schools with tablet computers step by step for two years,” explained Münde, while Häusler explained his vision for digital education in Oberding. The 39-year-old, who grew up in Dingolfing and studied secondary school teaching at the University of Passau, already had experience from his many years working at the school. He has been teaching here since 2011 and has also worked as a specialist advisor and coordinator for digital education.

About the digital equipment

Häusler, who is married and has a four-year-old daughter, plans to use digital platforms that work both in the classroom and at home. There are currently 100 tablets in use at his school, and the Oberding Middle School is one of the 50 Bavarian profile schools for computer science and future technologies. However, this development comes at a time when the Bavarian state government under Prime Minister Markus Söder has recently backed down on digital education. Der Spiegel reported that, according to Söder, the digital expansion in schools should no longer be continued at high speed.

School authorities and teachers are all the more hopeful that the announced digital strategy will actually be implemented. At the Karl Peter Obermaier Middle School in Bad Kötzting, for example, digital solutions have been worked on for years as part of the “Digital School of the Future” model experiment. There, too, lessons are sometimes carried out using tablets and students have developed a common understanding of how to use these technologies. Die Süddeutsche reports that students there have been working with digital tools for years and the teachers are enthusiastic about the use of artificial intelligence and other digital tools.

On the right track?

But Mayor Mücke's criticism is not unfounded: His words that schools are often used as “guinea pigs” by the state government show the insecurity and pressure under which many teachers work. It remains to be seen how the digital landscape in Bavaria's schools will develop and whether the efforts to provide comprehensive digital equipment will actually bring about the hoped-for progress.

The coming months will be crucial to see whether Häusler's initiatives at the Oberding elementary and middle school can also serve as a beacon for other schools and whether politicians will provide the necessary funds so that every school in the district can benefit from digitalization.