This summer, a number of German states are already launching a new test system for creating digital school reports. The state of Hesse will also join them starting next year.
Provision of school reports also digitally
Test operations for the digital provision of school reports will start as early as this summer in North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate for the provision of school-leaving certificates. The system was developed jointly by govdigital (an association of public IT service providers) and the state of Saxony-Anhalt and, according to Eric Stange, the person responsible for the project at Bundesdruckerei, is intended to be “simple, forgery-proof and compliant with data protection requirements.”
Hesse will also offer digital certificates next year, as confirmed by Education Minister Alexander Lorz of the CDU. After legal issues have been clarified, he said, the state also plans to join in the test operation by the end of 2022. The provision of digital school reports is an important component of the Ministry of Education’s “Digital School Hesse” strategy, Lorz revealed in response to a question from the FDP parliamentary group in Wiesbaden.
From 2023 nationwide
The issuance of digital high school diplomas will still be in test mode this year, as well as in 2022. The goal, however, is nationwide use: the solution simplifies the issuance, management and verification of certificates in all federal states and is compatible with existing school management systems.
Interested states can initially join the test on a trial basis until the end of 2022. According to Bundesdruckerei, the digital school report should then go into final operation throughout Germany starting in 2023. According to the Online Access Act, citizens are to be provided with all government services digitally by the end of 2022.
