Overview
- Hesse’s education ministry ended the special teaching-hour allocation for the pilot subject “Digital World” and told schools it will shift into optional all‑day clubs starting next school year.
- Officials say lesson materials and teacher training will be opened to all schools in grades 5 and 6, which could extend the concept to more than 600 campuses that run afternoon programs.
- Schools must fund any offering from limited all‑day program budgets, which the ministry acknowledges may force trade‑offs with other activities such as sports.
- Teachers, principals, and opposition parties say the change downgrades a two‑hour‑per‑week mandatory class that reached whole year groups at about 80 schools into a voluntary club that many students will not attend.
- Large schools lose up to 36 weekly lessons by removing the subject from the timetable, affecting roughly 600 classes and nearly 400 teachers, with a formal directive due after Easter and lawmakers set to press the government on April 16.