The Department of Education continues with the deployment of its Digital Education Plan of Catalonia (PEDC), which started in 2020. For this reason, it will distribute, among just over 2,800 Catalan schools, more than 31,000 interactive panels, 4,300 robotics kits and 2,700 audiovisual suitcases. In addition, it will continue with the distribution of laptops, with a provision of 100,000 computers for 1st and 2nd year ESO students. With this delivery of new material - which has an investment of 126 million euros - the last phase of the PEDC begins (a program co-financed between the department, the Ministry of Education and the European Next Generation funds), which will conclude in March 2025. .
Anna Simó, Minister of Education, explained during the presentation of this last phase of the PEDC, that her department's strategy seeks to achieve several objectives. One of them, reduce “the important socioeconomic and gender gap in the use of technologies.” Also, promote STEAM vocations, that is, disciplines related to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
“We need to have many professionals in these areas,” said Joan Cuevas, general director of innovation, digitalization and curriculum, also present at the presentation. Simó recalled that these disciplines are dominated by boys, who usually come from upper-middle class families.
For Simó, "the objective is not to provide technology, which is not an end in itself, but rather to comprehensively develop students." He defends that the centers "must take advantage of their full potential" and, therefore, the department offers "support and training" and facilitates "the creation of networks to share knowledge."
Regarding the interactive panels, the majority will be distributed next year (in this 2023-2024 academic year), prioritizing those centers that do not have any (nor do they have projectors) and those that are more complex. The schools that will receive this material are both public in the department and municipally owned. Regarding the subsidy, only those centers that have more than 30% of vulnerable students will receive them (the European Next Generation funds do not allow the rest of the private centers to benefit from this subsidy).
The installation of these panels will be accompanied by technical training for teachers (so that they have knowledge about how the new tools work) and voluntary pedagogical training to delve into all the potential that these materials have to be applied in the classroom.
For their part, the robotics kits (more than 4,300) will also be distributed over the next year. Some 2,200 will be allocated to infant and primary courses and 2,050 to ESO, distributed among 2,263 public educational centers in the department, municipally owned and all subsidized ones.
Technical and pedagogical training will also be offered, with a focus on computational thinking, programming and different types of robots: compact, constructive, with sensors and actuators, and training on boards.
The department will also distribute an audiovisual suitcase to public and subsidized centers that have more than 30% of vulnerable students.
Likewise, up to 105 special education centers will receive resources to install experiential classrooms with the purpose – the department explains – of guaranteeing digital equity and accessibility to technology for their students. They will be spaces with screens, light tables, 3D printers, robotics kits and other elements adapted for these students. All elements will have adapted keyboards, switches, pushbuttons or other elements that will allow these students to achieve the necessary digital competence.
In addition, the department has put out to tender 100,325 new laptops for the centers. Of these, 73,000 will be destined for 1st and 2nd year ESO students throughout Catalonia, while the rest will be at the department's disposal for – they say – “future needs, new enrollments in the educational system or as stock.”
In total, according to figures provided by Educació, nearly 372,000 computers will have been distributed to students and more than 88,000 to teachers within the framework of the PEDC. The total investment in laptops since the beginning of the program amounts to 265.7 million euros, between own and European funds.
