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Elementary school children in alternating lessons (symbol image)
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Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance / dpa
The summer holidays are approaching in many federal states and with it the question: How will things continue in the new school year?
The designated head of the education union GEW, Maike Finnern, believes that corona-related school closings are very likely to be dispensable for a long time.
“I can't imagine that again.
I don't think we'll ever get into a situation where schools have to be closed for several months, ”she said.
In her view, however, there are still uncertainties.
On the one hand, it is not clear how the corona numbers developed in summer and autumn.
And she is pretty sure that not all children and young people and their parents will be vaccinated by the start of the school year.
Finnern said that pupils should get a vaccination offer, but "parents, children and adolescents have to decide for themselves whether they accept it."
It is also important that the federal states now use the phase up to the coming school year to invest in schools, said Finnern.
It's not just about air filter devices, but also about windows that can be opened, that the heaters work and that there is a washbasin in every room.
"This is an urgent task so that there is more reliable operation in the coming winter."
Finnern is to be elected as the new chairman this Thursday at the GEW's digital trade union day.
The previous head of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia replaces the long-time chairwoman Marlis Tepe.
On the same day, the education ministers of the federal states held a video conference to discuss how to proceed at the schools after the summer vacation.
Schools are currently normalizing again in view of the falling corona numbers, and some countries are also loosening the mask requirement in the facilities.
However, it is not foreseeable how the situation will be in autumn.
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Because of the sharp drop in the number of corona infections, Bavaria's Minister of Education, Michael Piazolo, recently called for the mask requirement in schools to be relaxed, as has already been announced in some federal states.
"The mask requirement is a major encroachment on freedom and we have to repeatedly ask critically whether it is still proportionate," he said.
With a view to the KMK, Piazolo called for "an intensive exchange" for a nationwide approach.
The Brandenburg Education Minister and KMK President Britta Ernst (SPD) had recently spoken out in favor of opening the schools in full presence after the summer, regardless of whether children are vaccinated or not.
The KMK consultations should also deal with the issue of anti-Semitism.
The ministers want to adopt a joint recommendation by the KMK, the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Federal-State Commission of Anti-Semitism Commissioners on how to deal with anti-Semitism in schools.
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, and the chairmen of the Federal and State Commission, Felix Klein and Samuel Salzborn, are connected to the video conference.
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A draft of the recommendation, which is available to the German Press Agency, includes assistance for teachers.
This explains differences between political, social, religious and racist anti-Semitism.
The paper also recommends that in addition to the absolutely necessary theming of the Holocaust in history lessons, "Judaism in lessons is not reduced to the subjects of persecution and the Shoah as well as the victim's perspective."
Anti-Semitic statements and incidents should be named as such in schools and should not be trivialized, relativized, concealed or ignored, according to the draft.
Schoolchildren should therefore be able to meet Jews, for example through exchange programs and partnerships with schools in Israel.
In teacher training, more intensive teaching of knowledge about anti-Semitism, Judaism and Jewish history and the present is required.
The KMK wants to present the results of its deliberations on Friday.
Fok / dpa
