The feared Omikron wave is also occupying educational policy. Will the schools remain open even if the contagion rates go up steeply?
Berlin – In a special service, the state ministers of education are discussing the situation at schools against the background of the growing Omikron wave.
In the middle of the week, classes resume in half of the federal states after the Christmas break. Millions more students are returning next week. The consultations are about how school operations can be maintained even with the number of infections rising steeply.
In advance, representatives of several federal states made it clear that large-scale school closings are not an option and called for simplified quarantine rules. Binding agreements are not to be expected from the consultations of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK). Since education is a matter for the federal states, the KMK usually takes decisions that are more of an appeal character.
School closings as a last resort
The coordinator of the SPD-governed federal states in the KMK, Hamburg’s school senator Ties Rabe, told the German Press Agency: “I assume that the Conference of Ministers of Education will reaffirm its decision to keep the schools open as long as possible.” You have to keep an eye on the needs of children and young people better than before, said Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Education Karin Prien (CDU), who took over the KMK presidency at the beginning of the year, the newspapers of the Funke media group. “That means that we will only close the schools when all other options have been exhausted.”
Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger assured the federal states of aid. “I very much hope that the Standing Conference will speak out in favor of keeping schools open with Omikron. As a federal government, we support everything that is necessary to make this possible, ”said the FDP politician to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung“.
“Critical Infrastructure”
Hesse’s Minister of Culture Alexander Lorz (CDU), coordinator for the CDU-ruled countries in the KMK, called for a decision to reduce the quarantine times with a view to the upcoming Corona crisis discussion between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Minister on Friday. “Because schools with eleven million students nationwide and 800,000 teachers are part of the critical infrastructure for me, which now has to be specially protected,” said Lorz of the dpa.
It has been discussed for days whether in Germany, as in other countries, the quarantine times should be shortened in order to keep important supply areas running in the event that infections increase by leaps and bounds.
A situation like a year ago should be avoided in schools. At that time the schools were in lockdown, which was only gradually lifted into the spring. Some students did not return to classes until May. Because of the long absences, it is estimated that almost a quarter of the students have built up or widened learning backlogs.
Everyone is aware of how much students suffered from the school closings in the past year, said the Rhineland-Palatinate Education Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD). In the KMK there was broad consensus that the subject matter could best be conveyed in school.
Mental illness from closings
The President of the German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Jörg Dötsch, who is also a member of the Federal Government’s Corona Expert Council, referred to the risk of mental and physical illnesses caused by closings. In addition, the schools could also help regulate the infection rate among children and adolescents through the good test system, he told the dpa. “Fortunately, similar to the delta variant, the omicron variant is much weaker in children and adolescents than in adults. There is no aggravation here. “
Comprehensive school closings are no longer possible after changes to the Infection Protection Act by the traffic light parties. Thuringia therefore had to withdraw its plan to start the new year with distance learning throughout the Free State. Now it is up to the schools to decide how to proceed.
Three-step plan in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, too, the schools should make their own decisions. The Ministry of Education in Schwerin has drawn up a three-step plan. The facilities should always determine on Thursday with a view to the current staff situation and inform parents, school authorities and school authorities whether there will be classes in full presence in the coming week (phase 1), with changing groups for older students (phase 2) or distance teaching ( Phase 3) there.
“I believe that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is doing it right,” said the President of the German Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, of the “Rheinische Post”. There is not only the alternative of face-to-face lessons or school closings, but a diverse bundle of measures in between. He told the “Watson” portal: “In principle, teachers are of course in favor of face-to-face teaching, because we know about the consequential damage caused by school closings – but not at any cost.”
The chairwoman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, does not believe that face-to-face teaching will be possible in all schools. “We have to be honest,” she told the Business Insider portal. “There will be schools that have to teach at a distance”. dpa
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