Monday 29 November 2021
Minister-to-be in the “early start”
Stark-Watzinger: School closings only as a last resort
The designated FDP education minister wants to do “everything else” before the schools are closed. In the “early start”, Stark-Watzinger calls for the financing of air filters to become less bureaucratic, “so that the funds arrive quickly”.
The future Federal Minister of Education, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, speaks out against school closings at this point in time. “We have not planned school closings in the Infection Protection Act, because there is a cross-party consensus that this is not the right way,” said the FDP politician in the ntv “early start”.
One must first “do everything else before considering such a measure”. When asked whether Stark-Watzinger could rule out such a measure, the designated Federal Minister of Education said that the developments with the new Omikron virus variant could not yet be foreseen. “As of today” school closings are not appropriate: “You must not be the first, but must be the last,” said Stark-Watzinger.
In addition, Stark-Watzinger criticized the Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) for his demand to bring the Christmas holidays forward: “It is of course always very striking and very easy to demand far-reaching measures.” One can clearly counteract the closure of schools: “We can prevent such measures from having to be taken through masks, hygiene regulations, consistent vaccinations and, above all, boosters in schools.”
“We are hindering ourselves”
Regarding the planned corona crisis team of the new federal government, Stark-Watzinger emphasized that “there will also be a focus on education, because we saw the educational losses in the corona crisis”. As the future Federal Education Minister, Stark-Watzinger will not be part of the crisis team.
Stark-Watzinger regretted that the digital pact had increased so much in the past, that the bureaucratic obstacles were so high and that the funds were not being drained off enough, adding: “Incidentally, this also applies to air purification devices and air filters. That this is not done to a sufficient extent, there let’s hinder ourselves a little. ” The first task will be “to find solutions here together with the federal states so that the funds arrive quickly”.