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Lessons with a mask: country leaders propose stricter rules (symbol image)
Photo: Sven Hoppe / DPA
Schools and daycare centers should remain open, and there are no plans to close them across the board.
That much seems to be clear one day before Chancellor Angela Merkel's consultations with the Prime Minister.
The country leaders reaffirmed their position on this.
"Keeping childcare facilities and schools open is of the utmost importance," says a joint draft resolution for the video conference this Wednesday.
Comprehensive alternation classes are therefore also not planned.
However, the countries agreed on various measures and recommendations to curb the spread of the coronavirus and the risk of infection in schools.
The following suggestions are on the table:
Mask requirement from grade 7:
At schools in so-called hotspots with "significantly more" than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week, pupils from the 7th grade should also wear a mask in class, suggest the states.
Exceptions are possible in schools in which there are no corona cases.
In some federal states, stricter corona rules already apply.
In Bavaria, for example, elementary school students also have to wear a mouth and nose cover in class.
In Hamburg, from the 5th grade onwards, a mask is required in class.
Alternation model in hotspots: In
some schools, children and young people are already learning regionally in small groups in a shift system, i.e. alternately at home and at school.
Keyword hybrid teaching.
There are national step-by-step plans and local regulations for schools by the authorities, depending on the infection rate.
This regional principle is now reaffirmed in the paper of the federal states.
Further measures, such as hybrid instruction, should be implemented specifically for the school in "special infection hotspots", specifically for "older age groups".
The federal states agree that younger pupils should be the last to forego face-to-face classes.
New quarantine rules:
The country chiefs propose a uniform procedure here.
If a student tests positive for Corona, a group of classmates determined by the local health department should immediately be sent to a five-day quarantine - the days on the weekend are counted. Teachers should not be in this "cluster isolation" because of "the temporary and differently structured contact" be included.
After five days of quarantine, the affected students should take a quick test.
If you get a negative result, you can go back to school.
If the test is positive, the test should be repeated every three days until the test is negative.
The federal states expect the federal government to make sufficient test capacities available.
Early Christmas holidays:
The country paper does not explicitly recommend extended Christmas holidays.
However, several federal states, such as Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and, most recently, Lower Saxony have already created facts and announced an extension of their holidays.
As in most other federal states, they should not start the day before Christmas Eve, which falls on a Thursday this year, but on the weekend before.
The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, has already announced that he wants to support the federal-state switch for extended Christmas holidays.
Then people could use a distance of five to six days until Christmas Eve to minimize contacts, it said from the ministry.
"Then you will go to your grandparents on the holidays with a more relaxed feeling and celebrate Christmas with your family."
Dobrindt relies on stricter measures
It is still unclear whether the resolution proposed by Merkel and the Prime Minister will be accepted.
For some, the advance is evidently going too far, but not far enough for others.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) spoke out against restrictions on school operations from an incidence value of 50.
She does not agree if the Federal Chancellery demands measures such as changing lessons and masking requirements for older students in regions with more than 50 new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, said the state chief.
Rather, it should be possible to decide in each region depending on the location.
"We are sticking to face-to-face teaching," emphasized Schwesig.
"We want as much normality as possible for the students." In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 98 percent of the students went to school normally and that should stay that way.
The country currently has an incidence value of just under 50.
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt also expressed reluctance to the country paper on Tuesday, but for different reasons.
He had the expectation that even stronger measures would be taken in the deliberations.
"I hope that we will find more specific agreements in the field of schools too, which will then also be used everywhere in Germany." Hybrid forms of teaching should be used much more, as is already the case at universities.
This also includes alternating lessons.
more on the subject
Bavaria: Earlier Christmas holidays for self-isolation
Before federal-state consultations: ministers of education propose new rules for schools in hotspots by Silke Fokken
Teachers' Association complains about the Corona approach of the federal states: "Recommendations of the RKI trashed"
Dispute over Corona school concepts: "You can call that outrageous" An interview by Armin Himmelrath
For months, some parent and teacher associations have been demanding that pupils be taught in small groups alternately at home and at school in the interests of greater infection protection, including the Education and Science Union (GEW).
She now also considers the country paper to be inadequate.
Health protection for teachers, students and parents on the one hand and keeping schools open on the other hand could not be reconciled, said chairwoman Marlies Tepe of the "Rheinische Post".
Tepe demanded that models were needed quickly for alternating lessons with divided face-to-face and distance lessons.
NRW School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP) had only emphasized on Monday that the education ministers of all countries see face-to-face teaching as the “first choice”.
She assumes that this attitude will also come into play at the summit on Wednesday.
NRW wants to stick to learning in the classroom and not introduce nationwide alternate teaching.
In individual cases, however, this is possible on site in Corona hotspots, and it is then also sensible and necessary.
"There is one point where I would say that there is very little room for maneuver, and that is when it comes to school"
Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin
Education in Germany is a matter of the state.
The 16 education ministers have not yet agreed on nationwide uniform corona rules.
Most recently, however, with a view to the federal-state round on Wednesday, they jointly proposed certain measures for schools in »hotspots«, including hybrid lessons for schoolchildren from grade 11. That the concrete implementation of measures should ultimately be decided on site, there seems to be broad political consensus.
Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller said in front of the switch on Wednesday: "There is one point where I would say that there is very little room for negotiation, and that is on the subject of schools." The states clearly stated that it could not come from the federal level it can be decided which teaching model will be implemented.
At the federal-state consultations on Monday last week, stricter corona measures in schools had already been discussed.
In the original version of a federal resolution proposal, there was talk of halving the group sizes at schools.
But there was no agreement on this.
On Tuesday, Müller said on the subject: "That cannot be a route that is agreed across the country."
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