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Empty classroom: "Schools in full operation at all costs: no"
Photo: Michael Weber / imago images
A few days ago, the German Teachers' Association (DL) sounded the alarm: If politics does not address the issue of Corona in schools now, there is a risk of school closings across the board, the educators warned.
The partial shutdown agreed by the federal government and states, which will apply from Monday for the whole of November, excludes schools.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime ministers justified the decision by saying that they did not want to put the families under stress again by looking after the children.
The parents should be able to continue working.
But experts in the corona crisis have long complained about failures to ensure the safety of students and teachers in German schools.
Concepts to ventilate classrooms sensibly and regularly were missing - as well as plans to be able to keep distances.
"We say: keep schools open: Yes - adapted to the current infection rate. But schools in full operation at any price: no," said DL President Heinz-Peter Meidinger in a message.
Since the pandemic cannot be dealt with in a short period of time, teachers are calling for long-term solutions and reliable guidelines for action, otherwise schools can be expected to close.
However, they already exist.
According to a survey, well over a hundred schools in Germany are currently completely closed.
For reasons of infection protection, there are no classes at at least 165 teaching institutions.
135 of them are in Bavaria alone, as a survey by the "Welt am Sonntag" among the 16 education ministries of the federal states revealed.
In Hesse, there are currently no face-to-face classes in six schools due to corona.
Four schools are affected in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and two in Schleswig-Holstein.
Baden-Württemberg had 15 closed schools on the last cut-off date before the autumn vacation.
According to the report, one school each is closed in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Brandenburg.
After all, in some federal states no school had to be shut down completely.
In all countries, however, individual students and classes are in quarantine.
According to the report, it is unclear how many students will have to stay at home in total.
Bavaria reported more than 500,000 students in quarantine, in North Rhine-Westphalia there should be more than 13,500.
Lower Saxony reported limited lessons at 52 schools, but there were no corona infections at most of the around 3,000 schools.
But in many other countries, the ministries of education did not provide any information, as the situation is confusing due to the recent strong increase in the number of infections or the numbers only reach the state ministries with a delay.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, there were 32,332 general education schools in Germany in the 2019/2020 school year.
Unclear study situation
Virologists have been discussing the question of how often children become infected with the coronavirus for some time.
In most cases, children survive the infection very well.
But it's unclear how contagious they are.
Studies come to different results here.
A study by the Helmholtz Center in Munich recently showed that more children and young people in Bavaria had been infected with Sars-CoV-2 in recent months than expected.
The researchers examined blood samples from minors between January and July.
Compared to the cases reported in the state at that time in up to 18-year-olds, the antibody frequency from a previous Sars-CoV-2 infection was about six times higher.
About 50 percent of the children and adolescents who tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in the study had no corresponding disease symptoms.
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joe / dpa