D.he shortening of the quarantine periods for the critical infrastructure after meaningful testing is undoubtedly necessary in order to maintain public life. It is noteworthy, however, that only occupations in health and energy supply as well as police and fire brigade are mentioned, but never teachers, educators and university lecturers.
As right as it is that media and culture belong to the critical infrastructure, the appeal of the education ministers is justified to equate the staff of the educational institutions at least with the employees of the critical infrastructure and to shorten quarantine times.
Unfinished business
Otherwise there is a threat of school closings. As soon as the schools are closed, however, there must be emergency care for the parents’ children who are employed in the critical infrastructure. If the traffic light government wants to avoid nationwide school closings not only in the Infection Protection Act, but also in everyday life with the Omikron wave, it will have to shorten the quarantine periods for schoolchildren and teachers, university teachers and students, for educators and daycare children. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has already recommended shortening the quarantine to five days for schoolchildren and daycare children.
If the prime ministers do not agree on Friday to equate the staff of the educational institutions with the critical infrastructure, children and young people will again suffer from the pandemic. With the current quarantine regulations for an Omicron infection, one class after the other would have to be sent home because either too many teachers or too many students are in quarantine.
Then even home schooling would not be guaranteed. Improving it remains an unfinished business of the ministers of education, who are happy about the right to education guaranteed by the Federal Constitutional Court, but have by no means fulfilled the claims derived from it.
.
#School #closings #Education #vital