How's school going, dear readers?

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Disinfection at a school in Münster: Lessons have started again

The past six months at schools in Germany was quite a hype: closings, homeschooling, overwhelmed parents, teachers and students. For a long time it was impossible to predict when normal classes would be possible again.

Shortly before the summer vacation, the ministers of education announced the good news: The new school year should run as normally as possible if the infection rate allows it. A glimmer of hope. Not necessarily for the teachers who were afraid of being infected by the herds of students who were coming together again. Not even for those parents who would be particularly at risk because of a previous illness if their child learns, hangs out, and fights with several other children every day.

But it was good news for the parents, most of whom are not teachers. And for the students whose academic advancement depended for weeks on their parents' ability to teach the subject matter or their own ability to teach themselves.  

School has now started again in six federal states. It is evaluated how big the gaps in the teaching material are. And it becomes clear what many people would rather not have thought about very carefully before the holidays: What do the phrases "as normal as possible" and "if the infection rate allows" mean for everyday school life?

A question that is now all the more urgent - and which must be answered with a clear "hard to say". The number of infections is rising again, every federal state tries its own regulations - and every school at its own implementation. Two schools in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had to be closed again after a short time due to corona cases.

Meanwhile, it is a Herculean task for the open institutions to guide the flow of students from different classes and years past each other. The start of lessons was staggered, the schoolyards were divided into zones, students and teachers wear masks, some even in class - and while teachers who are ill understandably struggle for special regulations and exemption from classroom teaching, the remaining teachers are exposed to extreme challenges due to the new everyday life.

And these are only the really big problems that can be seen from afar. As parents, students or teachers, you are exposed to this jumble of strict regulations, sometimes chaotic organization, helplessness and on-sight driving every day.

Tell us about it!

How are your experiences with everyday school life? Did your school react particularly confidently and found great solutions for the multiple challenges? Or do the efforts of an educational institution seem particularly helpless and chaotic to you? Do you have confidence in the regulations and how the schools implement them? Or have you encountered situations that you can hardly grasp?

We look forward to your experiences from everyday school life in the Corona summer.

bma