Sunday 11th July 2021
Fear of homeschooling
Worries about the new school year grow
The students suffered particularly during the corona pandemic. They were not allowed to go to schools, not see their classmates, had to study from home. Many fear that this could happen again in the fall.
With a view to the coming school year, politicians from various parties have spoken out in favor of maintaining corona protective measures and vaccinations in order to prevent school closings again. The director of education at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Andreas Schleicher, warned against sending students back into homeschooling.
By the next school year, schools would have to be technically retrofitted so that lessons could continue undisturbed even in a difficult infection situation, said Schleicher, who is also responsible for the international school performance comparison in Pisa, in the MDR. “These school closings are simply not allowed to happen again.”
The education expert stated that a large number of young people “fell completely through the cracks” during the crisis. The pandemic has once again significantly increased social disadvantages. Schleicher campaigned for younger children and children from “socially disadvantaged backgrounds” to be given targeted support. Six federal states are now on summer vacation. Most of the others will follow by the end of the month. At the beginning of August, the new school year begins again in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that it was important to him that everything was done in terms of preparation to enable classroom teaching at every school for every pupil after the summer holidays. Union Chancellor candidate and CDU boss Armin Laschet made a similar statement on ARD. Face-to-face classes are the only guarantee for some children that they have real educational opportunities, he said. The federal and state governments worked on a program to better equip classrooms with air filters. After the Federal Environment Agency changed its critical opinion of the filters, the states would now advise how to supplement the federal funding, said Laschet.
Lambrecht: Mask requirement must remain
Federal Family and Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht spoke out in favor of maintaining the mask requirement in schools. Various countries have already announced this, at least for the first few weeks of the new school year, in order to curb transmissions from people returning from the school. The SPD politician told the “Welt am Sonntag” that wearing masks for hours in the classrooms was very stressful, but still necessary to ensure safe school operations.
Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble warned in the “Bild am Sonntag” of new school closings and spoke out in favor of vaccinating young people if they wanted to. “If we can vaccinate 12 to 17-year-olds that we avoid restrictions in school operations, then that is a weighty argument,” said the CDU politician. He also advocated wearing masks indoors before running the risk of having to close schools again.
Saarland’s Prime Minister Tobias Hans told the newspapers of the Funke media group that the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) had not yet issued any vaccination recommendations for children and adolescents. “However, I take it for granted that in a situation in which the delta variant is spreading more and more among children and adolescents, I will continually review and adjust recommendations if necessary.” The CDU politician also pleaded for the continuation of regular tests in schools.
Greens: “Federal government is doing far too little”
SPD leader Saskia Esken warned of long-term Covid consequences for young people and called for children and young people to be better protected. “We must not lose any more time in the mistaken belief that children and young people are not at risk,” she told the newspapers of the Funke media group. She called for consideration from “the predominantly vaccinated older adults” and was critical of major events. Tests for returnees and for those who have not been vaccinated in factories should be maintained in Esken’s opinion.
Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt criticized the federal government: “We are announcing a second Corona autumn, and again the federal government is doing far too little to secure daycare centers and schools. Children, young people and their families are threatened to be forgotten again she told the Spark Newspapers. She called for “a day-care center and school summit so that this planning failure does not happen again.”
Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek was optimistic about the new school year. She is “confident that this autumn the schools can be kept open in principle”. “We now have a completely different starting position after the holidays. We have an increasing vaccination rate, a good test structure,” said the CDU politician of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
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