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Open the window, lessons: In the next school year, the education ministers want regular lessons to be held
Photo: Christoph Schmidt / dpa
The promise of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) to return to "unrestricted regular operation" in the schools in the coming school year has sparked discussion.
"It is difficult to imagine that the infection process can be impressed by the fact that the KMK has apparently declared the pandemic to be over," said Udo Beckmann, chairman of the Association for Education and Upbringing (VBE).
The ministers had agreed "that all schools will be regularly attended at the beginning of the new school year 2021/22".
This means that the lessons can be given "without further restrictions".
The classroom teaching is also independent of the vaccination status of the children and adolescents.
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"Prescribing regular school operations, especially with a view to autumn, bears a risk," says VBE boss Beckmann on the other hand. Because the KMK does not give an answer to the question of how the federal states and schools are preparing for the situation if the incidences should rise again in autumn. "Instead of discussing long-term, alternative scenarios now, the possibility of a fourth wave is simply ignored," says Beckmann. He again called for the fastest possible purchase of air filter devices for all classrooms.
The new chairman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, also called for quick measures to be taken when equipping the schools.
"It is important that the federal states now use the phase leading up to the next 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."
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The Hessian Minister of Education Alexander Lorz (CDU) said after the KMK meeting on Friday: "The new school year will still not be a school year as we knew it before Corona." That is why the billion-dollar federal and state program to close learning gaps is so important. SPD Education Senator Ties Rabe from Hamburg estimated the number of students with significant learning gaps at around 25 percent - that would be around 2.7 million children and young people nationwide. Educational researchers in SPIEGEL had previously assumed that children were significantly less needy - and even with the lower numbers they came to the conclusion that the planned funding for the catch-up program was insufficient.
The KMK also decided that the joint task pool for the Abitur exams should also cover the natural sciences in the future.
The tasks would be available from 2025, announced KMK President Britta Ernst (SPD).
Together with the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the anti-Semitism commissioners of the federal and state governments, the KMK also agreed on a declaration on how to deal with anti-Semitism in schools.
Teachers should be sensitized and qualified for the topic in order to be able to intervene quickly and purposefully in the event of anti-Jewish statements or deeds.
him / dpa