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Corridor of a school in Rietberg, North Rhine-Westphalia: The schools in Germany were partially or completely closed for 183 days
Photo: Inderlied / Kirchner-Media / imago images / Kirchner-Media
School closings in Germany have severely restricted children and young people in an international comparison.
This emerges from an article by the Ifo Institute.
"Other countries in Europe placed greater emphasis on keeping schools largely open," says Ifo researcher Larissa Zierow.
"At the same time, the other countries were better equipped for digital distance learning."
School closings do not have to be one of the essential measures to combat pandemics, according to the researchers.
This is shown by the comparison of the Corona education policy between Germany and six other European countries.
Elsewhere the schools had closed much shorter.
According to the study, schools in Germany were closed for a total of 183 days if you add up the times of complete closings (74 days) and partial closings (109 days).
France, Spain and Sweden have the shortest times with 56, 45 and 31 days respectively.
Only schools in Poland had closed longer than in Germany.
In addition, in Germany the restrictions for school children were often greater than for adult employees.
In France, for example, it was mandatory to work from home at an early stage if it was possible to work from home.
In addition, exit restrictions were stricter for adults than for school children.
In addition, the switch to online distance learning in Germany often posed a challenge.
"When it comes to digital teaching, Germany is in the lower ranks," explains education economist Zierow.
"Other European countries have been using digital technologies in schools for several years, so it was easier to switch to distance learning." For German schoolchildren, however, online lessons have taken place comparatively rarely, and the resulting learning gaps are particularly high for underperformers.
Programs should therefore be used in a targeted manner in order to catch up with these backlogs and to support the affected schoolchildren in learning in the pandemic, demand the researchers.
School closings again would have drastic consequences, especially for disadvantaged school children.
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