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Corona and schools: what we need to do now for more equal opportunities

2021-01-22T10:31:45.810Z


If schools are closed, educational injustices will continue to increase, a commission of experts warns - and proposes countermeasures that can be implemented at short notice.


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Child in homeschooling: distance learning threatens to exacerbate educational injustice (symbolic image)

Photo: 

Markus Mielek / imago images / Westend61

Schools in Germany have been largely closed since Christmas, and nothing should change until February 14th.

At least.

This is what the decision of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers says, which is now being implemented more or less "restrictively" in the federal states.

The consequence: around eleven million children and adolescents have at least two months without normal lessons, most of them should study from home - ideally digitally, with the support of their parents.

But that's exactly what is often a problem.

Homeschooling with the children while the parents work in the home office - that is a huge challenge, even for educated mothers and fathers.

For parents who are not at home because they earn their living in hospitals or factories that are not very suitable as »substitute teachers« and cannot provide a separate room or laptop, stable internet and printer for each child it impossible.

The children suffer.

You run the risk of being left behind by the better-funded.

This is not a new finding.

The fact that school closings could exacerbate the inequality of opportunity, which is already very pronounced in Germany, has long been recognized as a grievance, at least since schools went into shutdown for the first time in spring 2020.

Almost mantra-like, educational researchers, paediatricians and other specialists warn of the consequences.

Even Merkel, who was a clear proponent of school closings during the pandemic, currently sees non-academic children at a clear disadvantage.

Nevertheless: Even if some things are better in the second shutdown, even after almost a year of the corona crisis, politicians have not found a satisfactory solution for more educational justice.

Many children are currently being left behind, left alone, remaining unreached.

The problem does not go away on its own.

Since this Thursday, a specific proposal from a 22-person expert commission has been on the table.

Treat unequal unequal

On behalf of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, which is close to the SPD, the commission, including researchers, school principals, students and parents, has drawn up comprehensive recommendations on what school actors can do in the short and medium term to support disadvantaged students.

»It is undisputed that caution is required in a pandemic.

But education must not be a privilege, «says Kai Maaz, Chairman of the Commission and Managing Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Research.

"We may not be able to reduce the differences in educational opportunities at the moment, but at least we cannot let them increase."

The commission recommends: In order to create more justice, school actors should base their entire actions on a principle that initially seems unjust: treat unequal unequal.

When children are schooled in correspondence or alternating lessons, as is now the case, this means, for example: "Structures must be created that take particularly disadvantaged students into account," says Maaz.

That does not mean that other students are less important, but that they are less dependent on support.

In other words: The teacher does not have to distribute their attention immediately, but according to need.

Some children get more than others.

Stable small groups of up to four children

Fixed daily structures are also important for all children when learning at a distance.

But according to Maaz, it is even more important for socially disadvantaged children to have binding weekly and lesson plans as well as a fixed contact person who is in contact on a daily basis.

Schoolchildren “with increased stress” should even be supervised daily in distance learning in stable small groups of up to four children.

However, this task does not necessarily have to be performed by teachers, says Maaz.

If there is a shortage of staff, schools should, for example, rely on the help of students.

That pupils are not allowed to go to school for a long time - like now - should be avoided.

With the interchangeable model, children should study in the classroom for days rather than weeks.

New learning content should be developed in school, and what has been learned at home practiced and deepened using clearly structured tasks.

This is just as important for underperforming students as regular feedback.

Other Recommendations

  • Plan beyond February 14:

    Educational politicians and school authorities should present a concept for the second half of the school year with clear regulations, but also scope for the schools, which, in view of the infection, »also takes into account the possibility of longer phases of alternating or distance learning «.

    "The current phase will not be over in two, three or four weeks," predicts Maaz.

    "The finish line is currently February 14th, but school players have to prepare for this phase to continue, and we need a clear strategy for this." The focus should be on catching up on learning backlogs and ensuring minimum standards.

    According to the experts, the quality standards of teaching should of course be preserved, but if there is less time available for joint learning, actors should "set priorities and priorities" for the coming school year.

    In other words: slim down on the curriculum, reduce material.

    If schools can only be partially opened to certain groups, the focus should not be (only) on primary school students and graduating classes as is currently the case.

    The commission recommends giving priority to children and young people with social disadvantages, handicaps and increased care needs.

  • Ensure reliability:

    Whether schools are partially or completely closed currently depends heavily on federal-state consultations and implementation in the states.

    Uniform procedure?

    Nothing.

    "For example, a family experiences that a primary school in their own state is closed, but a few kilometers away in the neighboring state is open - with a similar infection rate," says Maaz.

    That is incomprehensible.

    The commission therefore recommends: "Decisions about school closings should be made on the basis of current scientific knowledge as well as clear and transparent criteria agreed across countries and implemented uniformly nationwide." The actors should be guided by previously set incidence values, similar to the Robert Koch Institute has been suggesting for months.

In the past few months, the ministers of education and culture had always refused to set fixed incidence values ​​for school closings, but instead stuck to the primacy of face-to-face teaching.

With the federal-state resolutions of Tuesday, schools (and daycare centers) should "generally remain closed" or the mandatory attendance should be lifted.

The result: in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein, where there were not even 40 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days, schools are closed, as is the case in the Thuringian district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt with almost 500 incidences.

  • Enabling digital learning for everyone:

    "The best digital lessons are of no use if students don't have the digital devices to take part," says Maaz.

    All pupils would have to be provided with the appropriate infrastructure - and all teachers would have to be enabled to design digital forms of teaching and learning competently.

    The loan devices for socially disadvantaged schoolchildren supported by politics in the pandemic have not yet arrived everywhere.

    The commission writes that the funds of the digital pact and the special programs decided by the federal and state governments should be used more quickly.

  • Offering additional support:

    Remedial courses in schools, for example in the afternoon, or tutoring from private providers: Pupils who are disadvantaged or have special educational needs should be given additional opportunities to close learning gaps in addition to the lessons, which are binding for the pupils and students and free of charge for the families.

    In several federal states there have recently been similar programs, such as holiday courses.

  • Ensure fair exams:

    If classroom lessons are canceled on a large scale, fewer class

    tests

    and exams should be written.

    Only what has been learned in class may be tested.

    Topics that were only used in distance learning should, if possible, not be queried.

  • “Sitting down” does not count:

    At the end of the school year, repeating school years should be avoided and should not be counted towards the maximum length of stay in school.

    The Conference of Ministers of Education agreed on a corresponding rule on Thursday.

The expert commission around Maaz sees in all these recommendations short-term measures to counteract the injustice of opportunities.

In order to better support socially disadvantaged schoolchildren in the medium term, she advises, among other things, to strengthen the educational mandate of daycare centers.

In addition, schools in difficult social environments should be better equipped than others - true to the principle: treat unequal unequal.

One who predicts enormous follow-up costs from the current school closings and calls for a change of direction at short notice is the Ifo education researcher Ludger Wößmann.

For the individual schoolchildren over their entire professional life, an average of around three percent lower earned income should be expected if a third of a school year is lost.

Losses in growth can also be expected for the economy as a whole.

In order to avoid all of this - and also to counteract an increasing injustice of opportunities - schools should at least start teaching again as quickly as possible, according to Woessmann.

In order to contain the pandemic, politics could instead start in other areas.

»There is no effective protection in old people's and nursing homes, no definite rules for open-plan offices, for other workplaces or for traveling.

In addition, the current contact rules are only half-heartedly enforced in many places, "criticized Woessmann last Friday in the" Wirtschaftswoche ".

By restricting contacts in the adult population more consistently, the younger generation could be less stressed.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-01-22

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