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Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Education Theresa Schopper in Stuttgart (May 2022): "Pregnancy is not an illness, just a condition - and a nice one too"
Photo: Bernd Weissbrod / dpa
The reason for her initiative is the shortage of teachers: Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Education, Theresa Schopper (Greens), wants to relax the protection rules for pregnant teachers.
"I think you should return to the pre-Corona regulation," she said in an interview with the "Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung" at the beginning of June.
»A pregnancy is not an illness, just a condition – and a beautiful one too.«
Because of the possible dangers for mother and child in Baden-Württemberg due to the corona pandemic, pregnant women are generally not allowed to teach in person because they have a higher risk than non-pregnant women of becoming seriously ill and having to go to an intensive care unit.
»For elementary schools, where many young women teach, these sudden absences are a huge problem.
That's why we're talking about it with the responsible authorities," said Schopper in an interview with the newspaper.
Risk increased due to the omission of tests and masks in schools
However, the responsible authorities dismissed Schopper's proposal.
"The RKI continues to classify the risk for pregnant women as high," said the regional councils in Baden-Württemberg, which are responsible for implementing maternity protection, when asked.
The dpa news agency first reported on it.
"In addition, the risk for pregnant women of becoming infected with Covid-19 in face-to-face classes has increased due to the omission of tests and masks in schools," it said.
Minister's proposal is "food for thought"
The press office of the Ministry of Education emphasized in turn that the risk assessment was known and that the minister did not want to expose the teachers to an increased risk.
The proposal is only to be understood as "food for thought" for future consultations of the maternity protection specialist group.
In addition, it is still unclear whether vaccinations reduce the risk of serious illnesses in pregnant women and whether a new risk assessment is possible.
The Ministry's statistics do not show exactly how many pregnant women are currently not teaching because of the protection rules.
According to this, 580 teachers across the country were not allowed to teach at the end of May because of a particular risk; at the beginning of December there were 1,200. However, this should also include people who were previously ill or who were particularly at risk for other reasons.
According to the ministry spokesman, however, the risk group is low, most of which are likely to be pregnant women.
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