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Federal-state resolution: Schools remain open, but stricter rules apply (symbol image)
Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
Schools in "Corona hotspots" are to set up stricter rules for protection against infection in the future - for example, by switching to alternating classes for older age groups.
Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on this compromise on Wednesday evening after hours of consultation with the Prime Minister.
As Merkel announced in the subsequent press conference, educational institutions in regions with a seven-day incidence of over 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants are to implement further measures for the design of lessons »school-specific«.
These should apply from grade eight, but not necessarily for final grades.
In terms of the nature of the measures, the formulation of the round remains very soft: It is about measures that "better guarantee the implementation of the AHA-L rules, for example hybrid or alternating lessons," according to the joint resolution.
AHA-L stands for everyday mask, hygiene rules, distance and ventilation.
With this model, pupils learn in small groups alternately in a kind of shift system so that the minimum distance in the classroom can be maintained.
One group learns at school, the other at home, ideally digitally.
Daily or weekly swaps are made.
With the decision made on Wednesday, the changeover model will not be binding, least of all across the board.
The round with the Chancellor suggests that half-class lessons only depend on the infection rate.
Ultimately, the decision remains a matter for the country or is made by the schools on site.
The minister-presidents apparently did not want to make any further concessions to the federal government, which had insisted on further steps.
The 16 ministers of education had also insisted until the end that classroom teaching had "top priority".
"The kitchen table is not the better place to learn"
A return to hybrid teaching was seen as a central point of contention between the Chancellor and the country leaders, some of whom had clearly positioned themselves on the side of their school ministers shortly before the video went live.
North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) strongly promoted face-to-face teaching.
“The kitchen table at home in a two- or three-room apartment is not a better place to study.
The best place to learn is in school, ”he said in the state parliament.
All prime ministers agree on this.
Baden-Württemberg's minister of education, Susanne Eisenmann, had also vehemently resisted demands to let students alternate between teaching at school and at home.
"Changing classes in Baden-Württemberg would be an existential mistake," said the CDU politician.
There are also no good arguments why this form of teaching should be introduced to protect against corona infections.
“Nothing speaks in favor of alternating classes.
There is no substantive justification, neither numbers nor facts. «In Baden-Württemberg, alternating lessons had already been tried between Whitsun and the summer holidays - but without resounding success.
Several parents and teachers' associations, on the other hand, have been urging a return to hybrid teaching like in spring for months, and actually already with a seven-day incidence of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
This is also what the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute provide.
So far, however, the federal states have only implemented these sporadically and not nationwide, to the annoyance of many school actors.
The chairman of the education and science union, Marlis Tepe, had reiterated the demands for hybrid teaching before the video switch.
Health protection for teachers, pupils and parents on the one hand and keeping schools open on the other hand could not be reconciled.
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