Digital Education Action Plan – Action 4

Connecting to high-speed internet offers many advantages to schools, including access to a variety of online resources, platforms for collaboration and tools for inquiry-based pedagogies.

However, the results of the ‘2nd Survey of Schools: ICT in education’ (ESSIE2) show that many schools in the European Union (EU) are still far away from achieving their digital capacity and being equipped with high-speed internet.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that infrastructure gaps, for example concerning the availability of broadband and the adoption of digital technology, continue to persist in Europe.

Objectives

To help reduce disparities and address the uneven deployment of high-speed internet access in schools, the European Commission, through the Connecting Europe Facility Digital programme, supports gigabit and 5G connectivity for smart communities, where socio-economic drivers such as schools are located.

This action promotes 5G connectivity best practices in local communities and schools, alongside other education and training institutions.

It also intends to encourage EU countries to make the most out of the support available through various funding programmes for enhancing access to the internet and purchasing digital technology, e-learning applications and platforms, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Funding timeline

The Commission published 4 calls for proposals to accelerate 5G connectivity: