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No student, nowhere: Magdeburg school in shutdown (archive image)
Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / DPA
Heinz-Peter Meidinger is known for quick, sharp requests to speak.
The head of the German Teachers' Association represents only around a fifth of the teaching staff in Germany - but in public, thanks to his research, he is considered the voice of teachers in the country.
At the weekend, Meidinger warned verbally about the worsening coronavirus situation in schools and the associated problems with contact tracking. "In fact, in some hotspot areas we are on the verge of losing control," said Meidinger of "Welt am Sonntag". “We no longer know how to contain outbreaks of infection in schools. In more and more municipalities, the health authorities are so overloaded that they are no longer able to trace the contacts of infected students. And the school administrators themselves cannot order a quarantine. "
Meidinger cited numerous complaints from parents who complained that only infected children were sent to domestic isolation and that later infections would occur.
Of those over twelve, around half have now been vaccinated.
Seven out of eleven million students are still without protection.
"Extremely high social costs"
A topic that the next federal government will almost certainly be concerned with.
According to the previous Corona plans of the expected traffic light coalition, at least nationwide school closings should no longer be possible in the future.
Clemens Fuest thinks it is fundamentally right that this is not being considered at the moment - at least publicly - that another way must be found.
The president of the economic research institute Ifo warned that the intensive care units would be reaching their capacity limit due to corona patients and that schools would then be closed again.
"That has extremely high economic and social costs in the long term," said Fuest on Monday.
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Fuest put the corona-related failure of German economic output in 2020 and 2021 at around 325 billion euros.
The actual economic costs are, however, much higher.
The fourth wave therefore urgently needs to be broken from an economic point of view: »We need more tests, more vaccinations and we have to follow up on infections.
We shouldn't strive for a lockdown, but rather 2G or 3G restrictions, «said the Munich economic researcher.
This also applies to educational institutions.
The executive Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Christine Lambrecht (SPD) also said that there should not be renewed nationwide school closings.
"Schools and daycare centers must remain open so that psychological stress, loneliness, lack of exercise and learning delays do not increase even further," she told the dpa on Monday.
Allegations to the federal states
It is now a matter of consistent protection through vaccinations, if possible for everyone over the age of twelve, and frequent testing.
Children should not be the victims of a lack of caution and low vaccination rates in adults, said Lambrecht.
"You have to find a middle ground," demands Heinz-Peter Meidinger.
»If there are air filters and adequate ventilation options in a class, the risk of contamination from aerosols is very low.
But just sending the infected child home without an air filter, without minimum distance regulations and without a mask is negligent. "
The Robert Koch Institute, says Meidinger angrily, gave the clear recommendation not to do without masks in classrooms in the current situation: "But half of the federal states don't care."
him / dpa
