Berne School IT in Bern to be renewed for 22 million francs

The school IT system at Bern's elementary school is to be modernized and further developed at a cost of almost 22 million Swiss francs. The municipal council has forwarded a corresponding investment credit to the city council.

At the heart of the project is the procurement of new equipment for schoolchildren and teachers, as Education Director Franziska Teuscher (Green Alliance) told the media on Thursday. The existing devices will soon reach the end of their service life and need to be replaced.

Proven standard products will continue to be used when selecting software. Teuscher assured the media that there would generally be no "experiments": "It's not a revolution, but a further development."

14.7 million for devices

Around two thirds of the budgeted CHF 21.76 million will be invested in replacing the hardware, as program manager Luzia Annen explained. The aim is to replace the equipment from the 2025/2026 school year.

Specifically, this means that teachers and daycare staff will be equipped with laptops for administrative work in the future if required. Teachers will continue to work with iPads in the classroom, as will schoolchildren from Year 3 onwards. Pupils from Year 7 onwards, on the other hand, will no longer receive iPads but notebooks in future. The equipment in classrooms in the form of projectors and digital blackboards will also be covered by the loan.

Annen said that the adjustments for pupils were based on feedback from the schools. In general, there is a strong focus on user participation and networking. The final third of the credit is earmarked for "participation and empowerment measures" as well as external support services. CHF 1.3 million alone is to flow into training measures.

In January 2023, the City Council approved a project planning credit of around CHF 2.5 million for the further development of school IT. Since then, the "Digital change in schools" project has been launched. As part of this project, teachers, specialists and school administrators are developing a basis for the further development of school IT.

"It must be a shared responsibility"

The introduction of the school IT platform "base4kids2" was chaotic in 2019. Including the follow-up loan, the changeover cost almost 27 million francs. There was also a lack of human resources and specialist knowledge, and the open source software caused problems. It was later replaced by Microsoft Office.

The outgoing municipal councillor Franziska Teuscher drew lessons from the previous project, particularly in terms of project management, as she explained. Cooperation within the administration is crucial, "it must be a shared responsibility". She was convinced that the new program would not cause any problems or additional loans.

The City Council is expected to deal with the credit transaction in the upcoming fall session. The Bernese electorate will then be able to decide on the loan in February 2025.