But that was over since last week.
Should the Christmas holidays be extended?
What was unanimously rejected as unhelpful at the beginning of October is now - in small doses - as an effective means in the fight against infections.
And that is not the only point of contention that has a direct impact on everyday school life ("This is the matter").
Nevertheless, it would of course be desirable if all schools were at least theoretically well equipped so that, if necessary, a problem-free change to distance learning would be possible.
But if they are not, the new EU education report shows (»Good to know«).
But despite the difficulties, there should and must be testimonies again at some point.
But: on what basis can and should they be created?
A school law expert tackled the issue for us once (“debate of the week”).
The “Kleine Pause” team wishes you all the best in these times.
If you would like to point something out to us, you can reach us at kleinepause@newsletter.spiegel.de.
Silke Fokken, Armin Himmelrath, Swantje Unterberg
That's going on
1. The Solinger Weg to the Chancellery
With an incidence of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days, the Robert Koch Institute recommends that schools should think about smaller study groups.
When the incidence value in Solingen exceeded 280, the city leaders wanted to send the secondary school students to a rotating shift model: half at home, the other half in the classroom.
City, schools, parents and teachers liked the idea.
The Ministry of Education in Düsseldorf, however, did not: It banned shift lessons.
Now the Bergisches Land is not necessarily known for rebellion (although the Bergisch farmers had successfully revolted against the Archbishop of Cologne in 1288).
But when it came to shift lessons in schools, there was at least a mini-riot.
You can read the whole story of the general school director who absolutely wanted to reduce his study groups here.
The Ministry of Education, of course, was not impressed.
And the comment by colleague Heike Schmoll in the »FAZ« fits in well with this, arguing that a changeover model is just as unfair as the relocation of lessons to digital space.
Here is your text.
The RKI and the federal government, on the other hand, see red: The number of infections is also increasing in schools.
The Federal Chancellery therefore asked the Prime Minister to end regular classroom teaching.
The classes should be divided.
The federal states successfully blocked themselves - at least for the time being.
The demands will certainly be resubmitted.
Reason enough to analyze the meaning and purpose of the measures again.
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First concerns: NRW Education Minister Yvonne Gebauer (when visiting school in Ratingen in October 2020)
Photo: INA FASSBENDER / AFP
2. Numbers games I
How many students are now in quarantine?
Heinz-Peter Meidinger from the German Teachers' Association estimates 300,000.
And an additional 30,000 teachers.
But whether these are really reliable numbers remains to be seen.
GEW boss Marlis Tepe in any case considers the number of 30,000 affected colleagues to be “out of thin air”, and VBE boss Udo Beckmann also agrees with the criticism of Meidinger's estimate.
My colleague Swantje Unterberg explains why it is so difficult to determine reliable corona numbers for schools.
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School lessons in Germany (symbol picture): The situation is getting worse
Photo: Gregor Fischer / DPA
3. Numbers games II
In Germany's classrooms it will be much more crowded in the coming years: The KMK expects a total of more than eleven million students by 2030. Of course, this will have an impact on the need for teachers - and for school buildings.
You can read here how the expected increase of 986,700 students will be distributed by 2030.
And also which type of school will not benefit from the boom as the only one.
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Schoolchildren in Hanover (archive picture)
Photo: Holger Hollemann / DPA
Good to know
Digital rather poor
When it comes to digital equipment, German schools are below the EU average.
The situation is particularly drastic in primary schools from grades one to four - so it says in the new EU education report, the "Education and Training Monitor".
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Ninth graders in Baden-Württemberg: Often the students lack the simplest IT skills, according to the report
Photo: Marijan Murat / picture alliance / dpa
It was presented by the EU last Thursday - and comes to the depressing result that only nine percent of children in Germany attend a “well-equipped and networked school”.
That is 26 percentage points less than the EU average.
We have summarized the most important results here.
The only hope: the data refer to the 2017/2018 school year.
The situation may have improved since then ...
Debate of the week
Write a dictation and math test on your PC at home?
The Wiesbaden lawyer Sibylle Schwarz has thought about class work and other exams in corona-related distance learning.
Sibylle Schwarz
Photo: Marco Stirn Photography
The exam comes after class, of course. In the NRW School Act, § 48, it says: "The performance evaluation relates to the knowledge, skills and abilities imparted in the classroom." The Hessian ordinance for schools says: "Written work (...) usually relates to the focus on the content and working methods of a completed teaching unit, the learning objectives of which have been adequately worked out through preparatory exercises. «So far, so clear.
W
as but when classes because of not held Covid-19 pandemic?
Or only fragmentary, because initially only worksheets were distributed by email and later had to be aired every 20 minutes?
Without proper instruction there is no imparting of knowledge, abilities and skills that could be tested in a class test.
An example: For the math test at home, a primary school student was required to sit alone in a room in front of the PC. The student, worksheet and room door must be constantly in the area of the webcam and thus in the view of the teacher.
This raises questions - about the technical equipment and living conditions. Because for class work at school it is enough for the children to bring their writing utensils. For online class work at home, on the other hand, they need a computer and powerful, smooth Internet access; a table in a quiet, undisturbed room.
But what if families don't have the money? When families live in cramped conditions? When three schoolchildren write online classwork at home at the same time? What if the primary school pupil and the mother who works in the home office have to share the kitchen table and PC?
And what if - as in the example - the elementary school pupil is alone in the room, perhaps even alone in front of the computer for the first time - and then the Internet is gone for a moment? Maybe because she somehow clicked it wrong. The elementary school student has never practiced this situation - but the result of her math test still counts.
News from Spiegel ED
Digital teaching modules on the subject of media and journalism
and free dates for virtual workshops in 2021
Three media-educational workshop modules on the topics of
»Fake News and Hate Speech«, Representation in the Media «
and
» Freedom of the Press from an International Perspective «were
developed
by young scholars as part of the first fellowship of SPIEGEL Ed and the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe
.
The corona pandemic also presented the fellows with special challenges.
In particular, digital workshop formats have emerged that
involve
the students
in the best possible way through dialogic and interactive methods, also virtually.
The workshop modules, videos and podcasts are prepared as OER (Open Educational Resources) and can be downloaded free of charge from the SPIEGEL Ed website and used in your own lessons.
To the workshop modules
From mid-January 2021 there will also be free dates for digital school workshops.
School classes from grade 9 can apply.
The workshops are carried out virtually and, in the spirit of peer education, run by young peer trainers from the Schwarzkopf Foundation.
SPIEGEL journalists then supplement the perspective from practice and deepen what they have learned in discussion and question and answer sessions.
To application
That's all for today.
The “Small Break” team thanks you for your attention.
Do it well - and always ventilate nicely!
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Ideas, suggestions, feedback?
We look forward to receiving mail to kleinepause@newsletter.spiegel.de.