Corona and schools: an end to the "new normal"?

Icon: enlarge

Mask requirement in class: some teachers and parents' associations demand more protection against infection (symbol image)

Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa

The normal timetable no longer applies: The first schools in Germany are again teaching shifts in view of the increasing corona numbers.

If the minimum distance cannot be maintained in the classrooms, classes must be divided and alternate between face-to-face and distance learning.

Keyword "hybrid learning".

This is the requirement of the Fürstenfeldbrück district office in Bavaria - to the annoyance of many parents.

The "Families in Crisis" initiative speaks of a "massive encroachment on children's rights to social participation and education".

It is "disproportionate" if schools and daycare centers are closed across the board and without concrete evidence of the spread of Covid-19 within the facilities for at least some of the children.

The district office, on the other hand, argues with increased case numbers in the region.

The authority said that the threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants was exceeded in the past seven days.

Therefore, stage three of the Bavarian corona plan is now coming into force in Fürstenfeldbruck and some other districts.

This also means that daycare children are looked after in a reduced group size.

A lockdown was even imposed in the Rottall-Inn district, daycare centers and schools will be closed from Tuesday.

They have been closed in the Berchtesgaden district for a few days.

Is there a local scenario that could soon affect all of Germany?

Example Berlin: warning level red

The ministers of education have so far sworn unanimously that schools and daycare centers should remain open as long as possible.

Face-to-face teaching has "top priority".

Education politicians want to avoid nationwide school closings like in the spring, if at all possible also a return to "hybrid learning", to the switching model.

According to studies, children and young people are not the drivers of the pandemic, but they have a right to education - and this can best be implemented in school, according to the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK), Stefanie Hubig.

On Friday and this Monday, the ministers again discussed corona measures in schools.

The result should be announced no later than Tuesday.

It is unlikely that politicians will fundamentally change their stance.

But one thing is certain: The topic is polarizing, also within the parents and teachers.

The pressure to give up lessons with a full timetable in the normal class is increasing - but so is the pressure to keep schools open.

Berlin wants to strike the middle ground: In the capital, a step-by-step plan will apply from Thursday, which provides for a return to "hybrid learning" in the event of a "high infection rate" in the local area around schools.

When exactly the corresponding red warning level occurs at a school should be considered "differentiated" and has not yet been tied to the number of cases - there is no such uniform line nationwide either.

Teacher grade for crisis management: poor

This is exactly what annoyed critics from the Federal Parents' Council, the Association of Education and Upbringing (VBE) and the Education and Science Union (GEW): "The whole thing runs according to the motto of the recommended speed on motorways. Many can handle it well, few are overly cautious and some are tiling 250 km / h in the traffic jam. "

One expects that the advice of science will be taken seriously, it says in a joint communication.

The background is the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) from October 12th.

This involves specific recommendations for schools that are linked to threshold values ​​for the occurrence of infection.

In the case of more than 35 corona cases within seven days for 100,000 inhabitants within an independent city or within a district, the following should apply:

• School activities with a potentially increased risk of infection (choir, wind orchestra, contact sports) must largely be avoided.

• A mask requirement should also apply in the lessons of secondary schools.

• A reduction in the size of the classes and school closings with distance teaching should at least "optionally" be checked.

If there are more than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days, the RKI recommends:

• Students of all ages should wear masks in class.

• Classes should be reduced in size (through division or alternation) so that a minimum distance of 1.5 meters can be maintained.

• School closings should be checked.

Only individual federal states have implemented this framework in this way or in a similar way.

Several cities are above the threshold of 50, but have not returned to teaching in shifts.

Critics like Heinz-Peter Meidinger, President of the German Teachers' Association, consider this to be "negligent" and demand more protection against infection.

Lessons in shift systems: "Catastrophic"

Meidinger, himself the head of a high school in Bavaria, belongs to a strong group of several parents and teachers 'associations who consider "business as usual" to be "irresponsible", as the North Rhine-Westphalia school directors' association describes.

Requirements for fixed cohorts, mask requirement, regular ventilation - that is not enough.

The fact that individual federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia have launched funding programs for mobile air filters does not reconcile this group of critics.

Association chief Meidinger gave the education ministers a rating for their crisis management on Monday: "Five", poor.

He told the editorial network in Germany that the ministers reminded him "of a student who started learning too late, then sat down in panic - and, out of being overwhelmed, said: Close your eyes and go through."

Meidinger and his colleagues demand that if the minimum distance cannot be maintained in class, then classes must be taught in small groups again.

SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach also speaks out in favor of teaching in the shift system.

However, many parents fear that lessons in small groups could lead to similar scenarios as before the summer vacation.

"Children only go to school on a daily or weekly basis because the staff and rooms are otherwise insufficient," warns Carola Schneider from the "Children need children" initiative.

"This is especially catastrophic for the children who lack parental help at home," she told SPIEGEL.

Schneider's inititiave has tens of thousands of supporters online, similar to the "Families in Crisis" initiative.

"We are not corona deniers," emphasizes spokeswoman Nora von Obstfelder.

"But the hygiene measures in schools are often even stricter than in many other areas."

Obstfelder considers renewed teaching in the shift system to be an unreasonable burden for working parents who have neither vacation days nor overtime left at the end of the year - and above all unfair to the little ones: "The measures make those responsible the most, those who do the least for it Infections are responsible: our children, "she warns.

This faction also has prominent advocates.

Schools should stay open as long as possible, demands OECD Education Director Andreas Schleicher.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers had recently also represented this position.

On Wednesday they will advise on further corona measures.

Icon: The mirror

With material from dpa