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Anja Karliczek with a mask: The minister is hoping for rapid corona tests
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Before the top-level talks between the federal and state governments about new state restrictions in the corona crisis, Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek calls for increased efforts to ensure that schools run smoothly.
"As Federal Minister of Education, I am particularly concerned that the pandemic will again endanger teaching in schools," said the CDU politician to the editorial network in Germany.
The number of students in quarantine is still manageable, says Karliczek, but it doesn't have to stay that way.
According to the latest figures from Saturday, around 50,000 of a total of eleven million schoolchildren are currently in quarantine nationwide.
Society could prevent the numbers from increasing if the basic rules for fighting the pandemic are continued, said the minister.
"But this discipline must also be applied by all those involved in the schools themselves."
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the Prime Ministers are discussing a strategy against the corona pandemic in autumn and winter this Tuesday.
At the video conference, nationwide uniform rules for a regionally differentiated approach should be the focus, such as a traffic light warning system or participant restrictions for celebrations.
A mask requirement in busy public places is also under discussion.
Virologist: Infection numbers should not be the only decisive factor
Karliczek warned that the corona development is worrying, even if Germany is still far below the numbers in France or Spain.
The Germans shouldn't be fooled by this.
"Such a development can also occur with us," said the minister.
"It is not a natural law that Germany will cope with the infection better than most other countries in the future."
Most recently, the Robert Koch Institute had repeatedly reported more than 2000 cases per day of confirmed new infections, on Saturday it was 2507, the highest value since April.
From the point of view of the virologist Hendrik Streek, however, the numbers should not be the decisive criterion in assessing the situation, but rather the proportion of inpatient treatments and the utilization of intensive care beds.
Streeck also criticized that there was too much fear in Germany, "and over the summer we did not manage to find pragmatic solutions as to how to continue in certain areas if the number of infections rose significantly".
His concern now is that there will be little discussion of solutions in the fall - and "too much about how we can cut back on life".
With regard to schools, parents and teachers' associations have been criticizing for weeks that schools are not well prepared for the challenges and that infection protection cannot be adequately implemented on site.
Since the beginning of the new school year, schools have repeatedly been closed regionally or individual classes or years have been sent home if there are suspected corona cases.
Karliczek now demanded that if a disease is suspected, it is important that schoolchildren and teachers have the easiest possible access to be tested: "I hope that the rapid tests will soon be widely available."
Overall, more attention must be paid to compliance with the rules and these must be enforced if appeals are of no use.
Times remained exhausting.
Students urgently demand a say
When it comes to the education sector, the Federal Schoolchildren's Conference is finally calling for a greater say in negotiations on corona measures.
"Consultations at the federal level, such as the school summit last week in the Federal Chancellery, must not take place without the participation of those directly affected," announced the organization together with the German Children's Fund.
A say is also essential at the state level and directly at the schools, it said.
Only in this way could "social and childhood-educational aspects be taken into account and suggestions and concerns of the pupils incorporated as well as possible," declared the organizations.
The children's aid organization looks to the next few months with concern.
"As if we hadn't learned anything from the last few months, we're steering our eyes into an educational corona disaster," said Federal Managing Director Holger Hofmann.
"After a worrying neglect of the interests of students in the last six months, the question must be allowed what politicians and administrations have done to avoid school closings again this fall and winter."
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