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Students in alternating lessons (symbolic image)
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Bernd Wüstneck / DPA
The post office was already there, but the urgently awaited parcel was not there yet.
The self-tests promised by the ministry for his students did not reach Thilo Mücher on Tuesday.
"I hope that they will be delivered these days," says the head of the Bergisches Berufskolleg in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The fact that he still has to wait is one of the reasons why Mücher has not opened his school this week as far as he should have actually done according to the announcement of his top employer, Minister of Culture Yvonne Gebauer (FDP).
On Monday in North Rhine-Westphalia, in addition to primary and final classes, all pupils from class 5 should come back to schools at least in shifts in half the class.
For the vocational schools, the ministry ordered “that classes are also resumed in face-to-face situations”, also in an alternating model for all courses and classes.
The Ministry of Education argued that it wanted to enable more normal school life, more stability and regularity in the daily routine of children.
Gebauer consistently praises a »triad of protection, vaccination and testing«.
Several federal states rely on similar concepts when opening schools.
The politicians responsible want to minimize the massive damage caused to children and young people by closings.
A nationwide strategy has so far been lacking.
And the much-invoked triad cannot yet be implemented in many places because there are simply no tests yet.
Many school principals are outraged by this, and some of them are at least partially breaking rules.
Like Thilo Mücher.
"Better to open it again carefully"
According to Gebauer's instructions, since March 15, the school principal should have brought all of his 2,650 students back to the two locations of his school in Wermelskirchen and Wipperfürth, at least on a daily or weekly basis.
One location, however, belongs to the Oberbergisches Kreis with a seven-day incidence of more than 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the other is in the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis with an incidence of more than 70. “So I would rather go back to school cautiously open and link this to a test strategy, ”says Mücher.
Only a few weeks ago there were two corona cases in quick succession at his school, including an exam.
Around 50 students and three teachers then had to be quarantined, says the headmaster.
At the moment, half of the classes in the Bergisches Berufskolleg, namely the final classes, are taught alternately.
According to the political guidelines, they should primarily be taught face-to-face, and he adheres to that, says Mücher.
He had coordinated this procedure with the school authority and the school supervisory authority, because at the school he could currently not offer the necessary protective measures for more pupils in attendance.
"We would then need twice as many rooms and twice as many teachers."
Alternatively, teachers would have to offer distance and face-to-face teaching at the same time: "A crucial test, not affordable," says Mücher.
"We will now consider how we can organize the self-tests logistically well and then gradually bring all the students to school from next week."
Dortmund fails with the application for school closings
Mücher is not alone in his rather cautious attitude.
The city of Dortmund even wanted to close all of its schools from Wednesday on Tuesday in view of the rising number of corona infections and the AstraZeneca vaccination ban.
“We firmly believe that at this moment it doesn't make any sense to open the schools.
That is why we have the urgent appeal to the school minister to end the school opening and the ramp-up of classroom teaching immediately, «said Mayor Thomas Westphal (SPD) after a meeting of the city's administrative board.
From the point of view of the committee, the schools' opening concept is linked to vaccinations and tests.
Since the announcement of the provisional vaccination ban by AstraZeneca, the basis for this overall plan of "vaccinating, testing, opening" has been missing.
They wanted to vaccinate the teachers with AstraZeneca, that is now impossible.
"So it's better to do it now," said the mayor, then there were almost four weeks with the Easter break to adapt protective measures to the changed conditions.
The city announced to the NRW Ministry of Health that it intends to close the schools from Wednesday.
The discharge came just a few hours later.
State Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) said the city should not close its schools.
With a seven-day incidence of 71.2 new infections among 100,000 residents within a week, school closings are out of the question.
Laumann criticized that the city apparently did not come up with any other measures.
The seven-day incidence is increasing nationwide and, according to the Robert Koch Institute, was 82.9 on Tuesday in North Rhine-Westphalia.
A week ago, the district of Düren applied to keep the secondary schools closed until the Easter holidays, contrary to Gebauer's announcement due to high incidence figures.
Here the value at the end of last week was 138.3, in the city of Düren it was 240. But also in this case it was finally said from Düsseldorf: The students have to go back to the classroom.
From the school ministry it is said that the district government of Cologne is currently getting an overview of which schools refused to take further steps.
Further measures will have to be decided once the facts have been clearly identified.
In principle, it cannot be ruled out that protective measures are taken in individual cases that go beyond the Corona Care Ordinance for the school sector.
"In no case is such a different regulation at the discretion of an individual school," emphasizes the authority.
“It's a ride on the razor blade.
It is absurd to get students into schools on a large scale with these numbers. "
Gudrun Wolters-Vogeler, Chairwoman of the General School Management Association Germany
In view of the increasing number of cases nationwide, the General School Management Association of Germany advocates that older pupils continue to learn in distance learning for the time being.
"From a medical point of view, one cannot justify an opening now," said chairwoman Gudrun Wolters-Vogeler to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
We know that the students' need is great.
"But the plight of the colleagues is also great as long as they are not vaccinated and are not tested regularly." You can already see how the number of infections and quarantine cases are increasing.
"It's a ride on the razor blade," said Wolters-Vogeler.
"It is absurd to get pupils into schools on a large scale with these numbers." Primary school pupils and older children with special educational needs should, however, go back to school as early as possible.
The federal states are currently proceeding very differently when opening schools.
While North Rhine-Westphalia has been planning to school all age groups in the alternate model again since Monday, Berlin is for the time being without further easing.
For example, unlike planned, the students in grades 7 to 9 should not have face-to-face classes before the Easter break.
The governing mayor Michael Müller (SPD) explained the turnaround with high corona numbers - and a lack of test options.
Other students should only return to the schools when there are sufficient corona tests for everyone: "We all assume that we will have a completely different situation after Easter."
Even when testing, the countries are not pursuing a uniform strategy in the corona crisis.
Saxony has been offering schoolchildren of certain grade levels regular corona tests since the beginning of the year.
From Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Culture, self-tests will be available across the board at all secondary schools in the state.
"This means that weekly tests for pupils from grade five will be compulsory," announced Minister of Education Christian Piwarz (CDU).
It was not easy to get the tests in such a short time.
Actually, they should be available from the beginning of the week.
Schleswig-Holstein wants to offer schoolchildren a voluntary rapid test from next week.
In the next few days, more than 500,000 such test kits are to be delivered in the north.
In Baden-Württemberg, only teachers and other school staff have been able to have themselves tested twice a week.
Starting this week, North Rhine-Westphalia wants to make around 1.8 million self-tests available to secondary schools at short notice.
According to the Ministry of Education, 300,000 have been sent so far, and more will follow.
All schoolchildren should be given a test opportunity by the Easter holidays, which begin in North Rhine-Westphalia at the end of March, i.e. once within two weeks.
The tests should take place on a day specified by the school in the school premises, if possible at the beginning of the lesson, supervised by teachers - and with the windows open.
Children should also wash their hands thoroughly.
If a test is positive, the child in question should be picked up by the parents or go home, preferably not by bus or train.
The ministry also stresses that the tests should be done on a completely voluntary basis.
It is »to make sure that students who do not allow themselves to be tested are not pressured.
No pupil may be excluded if he or she - for whatever reason - does not take part in the test «.
more on the subject
The situation in the evening: Dare to pull the Corona emergency brake! By Oliver Trenkamp, editor-in-chief
Icon: Spiegel Plus Third corona wave: Now younger people are the risk group by Julia Köppe
Assignment of blame between companies and authorities: What is the problem with the self-testsBy Stefan Schultz
Sharp criticism comes from parents.
The state parenting of the grammar schools in North Rhine-Westphalia doubts that voluntary tests have the desired effect on health protection.
In addition, the rare frequency of the tests is questionable.
Board member Franz-Josef Kahlen criticized: »What is the value of testing once every two weeks and if this one test is meaningful for a few hours?
Are we being ridiculed with placebos? "The setting of the planned tests is also criticized:
"
When was Minister Gebauer last at the doctor and was examined in the waiting room, and everyone else looked on?
Anyone who has to go out after the test is therefore immediately outed «, write the parents in a message.
It is questionable how this should be dealt with pedagogically.
"Our children have to go back to school, but not at any cost."
Because of the AstraZeneca vaccination stop and the boycott announcement from Dortmund, the Düsseldorf state parliament will hold a special session on Friday, which the SPD and the Greens have requested: "Corona management is slipping away from the state government."
The education policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Thomas Sattelberger, warns that Germany as a whole urgently needs to improve its vaccination and testing strategy in order to prevent schools from being closed again across the board.
The state must have more to offer than just stop-and-go.
Icon: The mirror
With material from dpa