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A doctor does a rapid corona test with a primary school teacher in Hemmingen, Baden-Württemberg, before classes begin
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
The negotiations had been long, very long, when the press conference was due around midnight on Wednesday.
Angela Merkel and the prime ministers had wrestled for nine hours over the new corona rules.
Then the Chancellor, together with Michael Müller (Berlin) and Markus Söder (Bavaria), presented the resolutions of the Prime Minister's Conference in a press conference.
One of the most important components: regular corona tests.
According to the two country leaders, they have been approved in the form of rapid antigen tests since October.
And these tests - on a voluntary basis as an offer for teachers - have long been part of the school strategy in the federal states.
"In Berlin we have already organized this very comprehensively for the education sector and are already offering the tests," said Mayor Müller.
"I can also say that here for our city, that there is not as much demand as we have offered it up to now."
Not interested in the teachers?
Immediately afterwards, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) spoke up.
"By the way, we also offer it here, in fact, at school and daycare," said Söder, "and it is, as Mr. Müller says: Even in Bavaria, the acceptance of rapid tests is not as high as it is thinks.
You have to say that very matter-of-factly. "
So do teachers refuse to use the countries' long-standing rapid test strategies?
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An interpretation that subsequently seemed to be confirmed by several state governments.
NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann pointed out on Friday that daycare workers and teachers in North Rhine-Westphalia who are used in face-to-face classes have been entitled to up to two voluntary antigen tests per week since February 15.
But: just a third of the employees in the educational institutions would make use of these offers.
The proportion in Lower Saxony is even lower, as researched by the Oldenburg “Nordwest-Zeitung”.
With around 100,000 employees in the education system, the proportion of those willing to test is a meager twelve percent.
In the week from February 15, 12,300 daycare and school employees across the country were tested, confirms Sebastian Schumacher, spokesman for the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in Hanover: "The tests are carried out by doctors in private practice." The schools have a corresponding list of participating doctors .
Lower Saxony "test week"
Overall, says Schumacher, up to 40 million euros are available in Lower Saxony for the voluntary quick test offer - that would be the necessary sum if all teachers had themselves tested every week.
In addition, the state has now also ordered five million self-tests for lay people: "In the first installment, we have planned 3.2 million tests for schools for two rounds before and after the Easter holidays, once a week for school staff and students." The round before the Easter holidays is planned as a "test week" to practice handling the self-tests.
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There had already been a similar advance in Saxony.
The Free State has already offered its teachers and students three free tests, once in January and twice in February.
The tests took place in selected schools and were carried out by specialist staff.
According to Roman Schulz, press spokesman for the Saxon State Office for Schools and Education, only 40 percent of the teachers and schoolchildren have accepted the offer.
"I would have liked a higher result," says Schulz.
Union representatives are not surprised that teachers are so reluctant to accept the voluntary tests.
Udo Beckmann, chairman of the Association for Education and Upbringing (VBE), is annoyed that the test offer can often only be used in medical practices or special test centers.
“The regulation proves once again that it is not seen what teachers are currently doing,” says Beckmann, “not every person has the doctor's office around the corner.
This is an additional logistical challenge in what is already a very strenuous daily routine between alternating lessons, distance learning and emergency care as well as taking care of one's own children. "
Teachers as stopgaps?
According to the VBE chairman, he does not understand why schools are not tested on site: »It works in hospitals and nursing homes too.« Tests should be offered on a low-threshold basis, with medically trained staff on site: »The teachers are not allowed be again a stopgap for a test strategy that has been inadequately prepared and equipped by politicians. "
Christian Hoffmann, spokesman for the Education and Science Union (GEW) in Lower Saxony, does not see the responsibility for low test rates with school staff: "There are 3,000 schools in Lower Saxony - why are there no mobile test teams that drive across the country?" Above all, that there has not yet been a functioning test strategy, the self-tests still have to be delivered - and the schools would still be reopened: "It would have to be the other way around!" be carried out at least twice a week: "A single week of testing is just a bad joke."
At least two tests per week, if possible for all students and teachers?
"Forget it," said the employee of a state ministry, who wants to remain anonymous, in an interview with SPIEGEL.
“How are we supposed to test a few hundred thousand children and adolescents twice a week?
Where are all these tests supposed to come from? "The responsible politicians advertise testing as the key to combating the pandemic, but in reality nothing is known in the school authorities:" There is a huge vaccination chaos and test chaos in the whole country. «
There are people who do not want to come to terms with it.
Olga Knack is one of them, she simply took matters into her own hands.
The pharmacist from Immendingen in Baden-Württemberg offers tests for teachers and educators.
To do this, she opens her pharmacy before 7 a.m. so that the teachers can have themselves tested before they go to work.
"There's no point if the appointment isn't until 2 pm," she says.
Regular customers with fixed appointments
With her initiative, the pharmacist wants to do something for her home town: »I want to help the community and show that a local pharmacy can make a difference.
If everyone does a little something, we'll be out of lockdown faster. "
The demand is very high, she has already made appointments until the end of March.
"I already have regular customers with fixed appointments," she says.
However, Knack is certain that other pharmacists will also offer such a service.
One thing is clear, however: The test strategies for teachers are far from being as mature as the heads of government Müller and Söder presented after the marathon meeting with Chancellor Merkel.
A SPIEGEL request for the underlying figures was not answered by the Senate Chancellery in Berlin.
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The Bavarian Ministry of Health only announced that serial tests for staff, children and adolescents are "organized by the schools themselves".
The ministry did not provide any figures on the acceptance of such tests by teachers; instead, a spokeswoman referred to new self-tests that are to be delivered to the district administrations in the coming days.
In practice, however, there are already signs of new problems.
On Thursday, one day after the Prime Minister's Conference, a school principal from Garmisch-Partenkirchen turned to the parents of his students.
In the letter that SPIEGEL has received, it says: "For organizational reasons, the district office has decided against series testing of schoolchildren in the local test center in Garmisch-Partenkirchen."
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