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Air filter device in a primary school in Bavaria
Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa
The funding program for mobile air filter devices in schools and day-care centers has ended.
This was announced by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) at the request of SPIEGEL.
The funding was limited from the outset: the funds had to be applied for by March 31 of this year, and payments were possible up to July 31.
The program will not be continued.
Against the background of the “extensive financial support from the federal government for infection protection” and “investments already made by the federal states in the education sector”, “further ventilation-specific federal funding programs are currently not planned”, according to the Ministry of Robert Habeck (Greens).
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In the summer of 2021, the federal and state governments had concluded an administrative agreement: the federal states should receive up to 200 million euros from the federal government to purchase mobile air filter devices for classrooms and daycare centers that are difficult to ventilate.
Children and young people should be better protected against infection with the corona virus.
Ventilate the most effective method in the fight against the pandemic
The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) recently made it clear that regular shock and cross ventilation is the most effective method of reducing the aerosol content in the air.
Only in rooms that cannot be adequately ventilated, so-called K2 rooms, could mobile air purifiers make an effective contribution to fighting the pandemic.
The funding program has long been considered controversial - mainly because for a long time hardly any funds were accessed.
The reason for this was, on the one hand, the narrow funding criteria.
At the time, SPIEGEL used the example of the 35,000-inhabitant town of Wermelskirchen in the Rhineland to show what that means: there are around 130 classrooms in the town, spread over five primary schools, one secondary school and one high school.
Just two rooms met the requirements for funding, for example because the windows cannot be opened at all or can only be opened tilted, which is not sufficient for ventilation.
In addition, only those rooms were considered in which children under the age of twelve were sitting - the older ones could finally be vaccinated.
Too expensive, too much bureaucracy
Another obstacle: the cost.
The support of the BMWK covered 80 percent of the purchase price.
The school authorities, usually the municipalities, had to raise the remaining fifth themselves.
In times of tight budgets, many towns and communities don't have this money to spare.
The corona pandemic and, in some places, the flood disaster had placed a heavy burden on numerous municipal budgets.
Other school authorities simply shied away from the bureaucratic effort.
When the program was launched last summer, some towns and communities had long since taken action themselves and were no longer dependent on federal funds.
The city states of Bremen and Hamburg have launched their own programs and purchased and installed the devices.
The clammy Bremen of all places equipped three quarters of all upper school rooms with the devices - most of them would not have met the funding criteria of the federal program anyway.
As the education portal Table.Media reports, of the 200 million euros provided by the federal government, only 42 million have been accessed.
The Ministry of Economics did not comment on the number to SPIEGEL.
