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Ninth grade in Münster (November 2021): Neither masks nor tests are mandatory
Photo: Guido Kirchner / dpa
The students in North Rhine-Westphalia will be the first to return from the summer holidays on August 10th - and then start a new school year under corona conditions.
The new North Rhine-Westphalian school minister, Dorothee Feller (CDU), announced on Thursday which protective measures and rules apply to them.
The minister said there will be no obligations at schools that go beyond the general corona protection measures.
This would give the schools clarity and reliability almost two weeks before school starts.
In line with the expert advice
Neither masks nor tests are therefore mandatory.
However, Feller recommends using both voluntarily.
In doing so, she relies on the recommendations of the Federal Government’s Expert Council, which considers masks to be effective indoors.
The state government will make masks available to schools, she announced.
The schools would also be supplied with tests that students should use at home if they had symptoms.
These event-related tests also correspond to the recommendation of the expert council.
Corona tests at school should be the exception, for example if a child only shows symptoms during the school day.
In this case, too, the test is voluntary.
Voluntarily and on your own responsibility
According to Feller, the Federal Infection Protection Act does not allow for any obligation to test or wear a mask.
If the federal requirements are to change, the minister would like to adapt the corona action concept for the schools before the autumn holidays.
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The rules for compliance with hygiene and protection against infection already practiced in schools, above all by regularly airing the classrooms and course rooms, are also still valid.
The ministry will support schools in purchasing CO2 measuring devices.
She has concerns about the room temperature in view of possible bottlenecks in gas supplies.
The schools would be prioritized in this case.
In the event that many teachers fall ill and there are serious staffing problems, the schools should decide for themselves how to react.
The only requirement is that the schools remain open and the timetable is not touched, “at least not without having spoken to us”.
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Opposition demands compulsory testing after the holidays
Some of the minister's proposals do not go far enough for the opposition.
"We need mandatory corona tests for everyone for the first two weeks after the summer holidays," says Jochen Ott, spokesman for school policy for the SPD parliamentary group.
In this way, it may be possible to prevent the currently so numerous cases of infection from exacerbating the already prevailing staff shortage right at the beginning of the new school year.
"If a quarter of the teachers drop out, even the best headmaster can no longer organize regular lessons," says Ott, who himself worked as a teacher at a comprehensive school in Brühl near Bonn for many years.
Ott also demands that the state government should develop graduated emergency plans for municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia that are based on the sick leave in the school councils.
"We would like to see compulsory masks reintroduced in schools - at least as long as there are so many infections," says state student representative Phil Robin Weber.
It is a pity that the Federal Infection Protection Act no longer offers a basis for this.
"So we have to be content with a mask recommendation." He himself wears an FFP2 mask in the classroom to protect himself from infection with the virus.
On many other points, however, the student representatives have a similar opinion as the minister.
"We would like all schools to be given enough tests so that students can voluntarily determine whether they have been infected," says Weber.
It is also good that schools can decide for themselves how to deal with vulnerable groups.
"No more gloves in class"
The student representatives are "unhappy" with the recommendation to air out - because there is no sensible, comprehensive alternative.
In principle, forced or cross ventilation makes sense to improve the air quality in the classroom.
"At the same time, schoolchildren shouldn't have to wear gloves in class again in winter."
In view of the gas shortage, it also doesn't feel good to keep ripping out the windows in a heated room, says Weber.
»But we can see that permanently installed air filter systems will not be available everywhere in the near future.
Ventilation is therefore still the most sensible solution.«
