Energy crisis: Ministers of Education want to keep schools and universities open despite possible gas shortages

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KMK agreement: After the pandemic experience, schools should remain open despite the energy crisis

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Eibner / IMAGO

Germany's ministers of education want schools and universities to continue operating even in the event of a possible gas shortage.

“Our primary goal is that schools and universities can remain open and continue to operate even as the energy crisis worsens.

This is non-negotiable, especially after the experience of the pandemic," said the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK), Karin Prien (CDU), on Thursday after a switch with her counterparts.

Schools also have a stabilizing importance for society, according to a joint statement.

"The ministers of education of the federal states therefore confirm that ensuring attendance in schools, even in phases of critical energy supply, has top priority."

According to the will of the KMK, energy-saving measures should be checked and taken by the school authorities "while ensuring that the lessons are carried out".

Schools are usually run by the municipalities.

However, the schools do not have to turn down the heating.

Like daycare centers, they are exempt from such a requirement in the Energy Saving Ordinance, which has been in force nationwide since Thursday.

Teachers' association calls for concrete action

The Education and Training Association (VBE) praised the decision to classify schools and universities as particularly worthy of protection.

However, the association warned that concrete and transparent guidelines for temperature regulation would be helpful, especially for schools, so that unnecessary conflicts do not arise.

"We expect that the federal, state and local governments will now follow up on words with concrete actions," says the VBE.

So far, it has not been answered how the necessary energy-saving measures could be reconciled with regular ventilation to reduce the risk of infection in the classroom.

In addition, the KMK decision is a declaration of intent.

There are definitely signals from universities that they might at least partially switch to distance learning due to the energy crisis in winter.

The KMK announced talks with the Federal Ministry of Education about possible support measures for students.

The social dimension of the energy crisis is particularly explosive for her.

The federal government is currently working on another so-called relief package.

Representatives of the governing parties had emphasized that students should also be taken into account.

fok/dpa