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Friends who meet at school: Wania and Lisa
Photo:
Julian Slagman / DER SPIEGEL
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Wania, eight years old, usually sleeps until noon, has breakfast, then watches TV or grabs her mother's cell phone.
Wania plays on it or watches YouTube videos.
She also plays with her brother, goes out, does homework with her mother.
That sounds relaxed, almost like a vacation.
But Wania's favorite days are Monday and Wednesday.
Because she can go to school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"I think these days are much better," says Wania.
She sits in the Hamburg district school Wilhelmsburg and talks about her everyday life with Corona.
Morning round in class 3b.
Abhinav, Lisa, Josias, Eduard, Selin-Su and everyone else are all of Wania's opinion.
"I can meet my friends and my teachers at school," explains Abhinav, who was hit particularly hard because he had just been in quarantine for days.
A kind of house arrest because his father had suspected corona, which was then not confirmed.
The third graders are all very enthusiastic about what was taken for granted before the pandemic and is now rare: lessons in the classroom, games in the playground.
For around three months, from mid-December to mid-March, the schools in Hamburg were largely closed.
"I was often sad because I wanted to go to school, but I wasn't allowed to," say several children when they talk to the teacher about this time.
“I was bored,” says one boy, “but most of all I missed my friends.” One girl says: “When we are all at home, my parents, my brothers and I, there is a lot of stress and arguments.
I do not like it."
"It tickles a bit, but testing isn't bad."
Selin-Su, 3rd grade in a Hamburg district school
Since mid-March, as in many other federal states, the alternating model has been in place for selected age groups in Hamburg: 3b is divided, half the class comes to school every other day - although the number of infections is increasing nationwide and Hamburg is decreasing due to the "dynamics of the infection process" Good Friday even imposed a night curfew.
The public pressure to open schools and keep them open is huge.
The fact that Germany's politicians more or less give in to this is also due to the fact that they are relying on a new anti-corona measure: regular self-tests.
Infected - yes or no?
A quick result before the start of lessons should give children and young people at least a bit of normalcy in the pandemic, according to the theory.
In practice, the strategy is implemented differently in the federal states, is highly controversial - and still a ray of hope.
The tests
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Before class, the children test themselves for Corona
Photo:
Julian Slagman / DER SPIEGEL
In class 3b it looks like this: Nine children, all with medical masks over their mouths and noses, sit at individual tables.
This is how it is prescribed in Hamburg.
Two windows are open.
Cross ventilation to reduce aerosol exposure, especially when the masks are removed for testing.
Teacher Iris Hahn-Möller distributes long cotton swabs.
Every child is supposed to take a sample from their own nose.
The students already know that.
"It tickles a bit," says Selin-Su, "but testing isn't bad."
For other children, on the other hand, driving around in the nose, unlike what politicians and test manufacturers often portray, is by no means as easy as boogers.
A boy sneezes and tears well up.
He has to bring himself to push the cotton swab into his second nostril.
Another is almost crying.
Möller-Hahn comforts, encourages and finally praises: "It's great that you made it." Then the cotton swabs have to be put in tubes with a test liquid.
"Can you drink it?" Jokes one.
“Eee!” It rings back.
Teacher Kirsten Dall came to school earlier so that she can help with the self-tests in 3b.
She collects the tubes and drips test liquid into the test cassettes provided.
"With the children, it is not certain whether a test will accidentally fall off the table," she explains.
It takes 15 minutes before the results can be read.
Then Dall announces to the class: "One is positive."
"No, kidding, all negative."
The Hamburg school authority has delivered almost two million self-tests to the 430 schools in the city.
All pupils who have face-to-face lessons have been able to test themselves once a week since mid-March.
As planned by the federal government, this should be possible twice a week from Easter, and even three times a week for teachers.
In terms of testing, Hamburg has positioned itself faster than many other federal states, such as Berlin, in a nationwide comparison.
At times there weren't enough tests here.
The balance
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One strip in the test field = negative
Photo: Julian Slagman / DER SPIEGEL
According to the school authorities, the plan is working in Hamburg.
84 percent of the students volunteered to take part in the tests in the first run.
111 were positive, out of a total of 80,000.
They have to go home immediately so that they don't infect anyone.
There are other protective measures.
At the Wilhelmsburg district school, the children only take off their masks when testing and eating, sit at a minimum distance in the classroom and are only allowed to move around the school in fixed cohorts.
Almost all teachers have already been vaccinated against Corona.
"We have made a huge step forward," says the headmistress Katja Schlünzen.
“The risk of infection cannot be reduced to zero, but it is strongly contained.” Iris Hahn-Möller puts it this way: “For me, the tests have greatly reduced the queasy feeling at school.
I feel freer, more carefree, ”she says, knowing full well that the self-tests only show a high viral load and are only meaningful for a few hours.
Hahn-Möller thinks: "Sure, the results are only a snapshot and not 100 percent reliable, but they give a certain security, especially when as many as possible participate."
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Teacher Hahn-Möller: "Freer, more carefree"
Photo: Julian Slagman / DER SPIEGEL
In 3b, almost all parents and children find the tests good.
Schlünzen says that some mothers and fathers of the 1200 or so students at her school even expressly thanked her for testing.
The objectors are a minority;
some “lateral thinkers” are among them, but some mothers and fathers with precarious jobs are simply afraid of their existence.
"If the child tests positive and the parents have to quarantine with him for two weeks, they are out of their jobs."
"If parents or even pupils refuse the tests, it is difficult to deal with them," says Hahn-Möller.
»How much use is testing if a part refuses?
And how can I credibly assure other parents that their children are still protected? ”The teacher fears for the trust of mothers and fathers.
The view
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Difficult to do in distance lessons: paint Easter eggs and hang them up together
Photo:
Julian Slagman / DER SPIEGEL
As in Hamburg, the tests have so far been voluntary in most federal states, probably also because the necessary test capacities were still lacking in many places.
That is changing now.
After Easter, no one in Hamburg should be able to evade the tests.
The Senate has made self-tests compulsory in schools - and in return is sticking to face-to-face teaching in the alternate model.
Schleswig-Holstein is also introducing compulsory testing after the Easter break, and this is already in place in Saxony.
The state wants to expand it to two tests per week after Easter, but leave daycare centers and schools open in hotspots.
Similar to Bavaria.
It is already the case here that children in counties with incidences over 100 are only allowed to go to the school premises with a negative test result, despite all resistance from their parents.
Some parents see compulsory testing as an interference with their children's right to privacy.
Dozens of lawsuits filed in Saxony.
The Higher Administrative Court decided, however, that the test requirement was proportionate.
But do the self-tests have to take place in the classroom?
Under the supervision of the teachers?
And so that all other children know when a student has a positive test result?
Some parents are also outraged about this.
Lower Saxony is aiming for a compromise.
After Easter, students are only allowed to go to school with a negative test result.
However, they should and are allowed to test themselves at home.
During the inspection, Minister of Culture Hendrik Tonne relies "a lot on trust," as the NDR reports.
Hahn-Möller in Hamburg thinks that a small test center at the school with external staff who accompanies the self-tests before class would be ideal.
"Then we would spend less time in class, and it is remarkable that employees in test centers wear full protective gear, but I only stand in front of the children with a mask." The current test setting is not that for the teacher best solution, but at least a solution at all.
"It was high time the schools opened."
The weeks of distance learning did not leave the children unaffected.
»While reading, for example, I noticed that some children no longer read as fluently.
The children did not have our fixed weekly reading times as training, ”says Hahn-Möller.
Colleague Dall says that some people have forgotten some multiplication tables because they lacked the necessary practice at home.
For some children, the school day is now unusually long.
You might find it difficult to concentrate.
It is remarkable how much the children enjoy sporting activities in the playground and small trips to the nearest playground, which would have taken place far too rarely during homeschooling.
The school now urgently needs to absorb all of this.
"The most important thing, therefore," says the headmistress Schlünzen, "is that the school stays open."
It is unclear whether this will work.
According to the Senate, if the incidence in Hamburg rises to over 200 on three consecutive days, the schools should close again, regardless of the self-tests.
In the Hamburg-Mitte district, to which Wilhelmsburg belongs, the seven-day value was already higher.
It seems difficult to foresee when Wania's wish will come true: “That the whole class can be together again, without a gap and without a mask.
That school is simply back to normal. "