fFor 2.5 million schoolchildren, the new school year began on Wednesday in North Rhine-Westphalia as the first federal state. It is the fourth under pandemic conditions. The doubts as to whether there are sufficient protective measures are great. The President of the NRW Teachers’ Association, Andreas Bartsch, complained that the federal states lacked “any binding and legal regulations” for protection against Corona.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has once again ruled out school closures across the board in the coming months in view of the corona situation. “We have to prepare everything so that it doesn’t get that far,” said the FDP politician on Wednesday. Teaching should also be possible using digital media if teachers are absent, but “always only to a limited extent and not school closures for months,” emphasized Stark-Watzinger.
Regarding criticism of the proposals for the new Infection Protection Act, she said: “The states have every opportunity to set rules with the schools.” It was the homework for the summer to prepare them. The new Federal Infection Protection Act is not supposed to take effect until October 1st – it categorically excludes school closures and only provides for a mask requirement if face-to-face classes threaten to be cancelled.
Omissions on the subject of air filters
In order to avoid another nationwide “patchwork” of different regulations, Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Education Karin Prien (CDU), as acting chairwoman of the Conference of Ministers of Education, calls for a national school summit. Experts also continue to see major omissions when it comes to air filters in classrooms. A comprehensive equipment is far from being achieved, it often threatens to remain with calls for ventilation.
The school minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dorothee Feller (CDU), does not rule out the return to the mask requirement for autumn and winter at individual schools or even across the board. In view of the current number of corona infections, it is not necessary to wear mouth and nose protection, she said on Wednesday. There is no legal basis for it at all. However, the state government is monitoring the further development of the corona situation and will await federal regulations. At the beginning of the autumn holidays, the concept should then be adapted. “It may be that in certain cases we make it compulsory to wear a mask,” said Feller. This will then be discussed with the Ministry of Health.
Two weeks ago she still relied on personal responsibility. Two weeks ago, she recommended wearing a mask voluntarily in the classroom; Parents should receive rapid corona tests so that their children can test themselves at home – on a case-by-case basis and voluntarily. On the first day of school there is also a self-test option at school.
Several associations and the teachers’ unions VBE and GEW urgently called for more staff. “The most important task is and remains combating the shortage of staff in the schools,” emphasized VBE country manager Stefan Behlau. The shortage of teachers is particularly serious in the elementary school sector, and the NRW teachers’ association has demanded that much more be done here.
The chairman of the association, Andreas Bartsch, named efforts in digitization – equipment and further training – as well as a relief of the teachers by school administration assistants as further construction sites. The same applies to high schools: “It is important that the digital infrastructure, especially across the board, is expanded in such a way that there are comparable conditions for digital equipment everywhere.”
Another problem for the new school year is the low vaccination rate. Nationwide, 69.3 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds have received at least two doses of vaccine, compared to just one-fifth of 5- to 11-year-olds. The NRW school management association fears numerous class failures if teachers become infected in autumn and winter in large numbers.
Lauterbach: Younger people can wait for the fourth vaccination
Meanwhile, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach does not want earlier statements on the fourth corona vaccination to be understood as a recommendation for all younger people. He never said that all younger people should be vaccinated now, that’s just wrong, he said on Tuesday. He merely pointed out that, in his opinion, risk patients should not wait for the adapted vaccines. For younger people, however, it could make sense to wait to be treated with the new vaccines.
In addition, according to the SPD politician, no call for corona vaccinations every three months can be derived from the plans for the new Infection Protection Act. That would be absurd and medically nonsensical, he said. The legal plans drawn up by Lauterbach together with Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) provide that from October 1st, mask requirements will be suspended for those who have recently recovered or whose most recent corona vaccination was less than three months ago.
The coastal states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein will follow on Monday (15 August) as the first federal state to end the summer holidays. Then the new school year begins in Hamburg, Berlin and Brandenburg. In Bavaria, school doesn’t start again until mid-September.