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Teaching under pandemic conditions
Photo: Matthias Balk / picture alliance / dpa
SPIEGEL
: Bavaria's Minister of Education, Michael Piazolo (free voters), is admonishing his teachers to exercise more judgment in their schoolwork.
What's going on there?
Leo
: Many teachers continue after the school closures as if nothing had happened.
They want to close the gaps that have arisen with overzealousness.
SPIEGEL
: What do you base that on?
Leo
: We get a lot of reports from parents that a lot of pressure is being built up on the children again.
After school closures or quarantine-related lessons, the children should be able to arrive again.
This requires facilitation, but unfortunately this has not arrived at many schools.
Of course, we only get to hear if something doesn't work out.
There are definitely schools that handle it better.
SPIEGEL
: Teachers are probably seeing the omicron wall coming up and want to quickly tap down a few grades before the half-year reports.
Löwe
: We know this behavior from a good year ago, when there was a threat of school closures before Christmas 2021.
There was a massive stockpile of notes.
As far as we can tell, this is currently not the case.
There is no trial work.
But just tasks to catch up on the school material.
»The education system is a sluggish tanker«
SPIEGEL
: Shouldn't we make up for lost performance?
Leo
: It's not the children's fault that the school year isn't going normally.
We are also in favor of not watering down final achievements, a certain level must be given.
However, the curricula were already revised at the beginning of the last school year.
There is a lot of non-exam-relevant filling material, here the teachers have leeway to choose accordingly.
But that hasn't worked for a year and a half now.
SPIEGEL
: So Minister of Education Piazolo's appeal is just right?
Löwe
: We already know such appeals.
The education system is a sluggish tanker and those involved are doing what they always have, rather than turning around after class breaks.
There is no appeal, but only an instruction that is also implemented.
You could actually expect that from an employer.
