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Empty classroom (icon image): Up to 40,000 teachers are missing.
Photo: Michael Weber IMAGEPOWER / imago images/Michael Weber
There is a shortage of teachers in the schools and the cold season also begins in autumn: education unions have now warned of class cancellations or even school closures if many teachers fall ill in a possible new corona wave.
The federal chairman of the Association for Education and Training (VBE), Udo Beckmann, told the editorial network Germany: "If the protection and thus the health of the teachers is not sufficiently taken into account, the school closures will be against the background of the already dramatic shortage of staff, in the event of a corresponding sick leave come of its own accord.«
The chairwoman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, told the RND: "Should there be significantly more cases of illness among employees in schools and daycare centers, there will be even more class failures due to the already prevailing shortage of teachers." Gaps could no longer be compensated.
VEB chairman Beckmann emphasized that schools and daycare centers must have top priority and should not be closed.
»For this reason in particular, we are concerned that the Infection Protection Act falls well short of our expectations.«
The Infection Protection Act provides that the federal states can prescribe corona tests in schools and daycare centers for autumn and winter.
Masks may also be compulsory in schools from class five, provided this is “necessary to maintain regular face-to-face teaching”.
School closures should no longer exist as protective measures.
At the beginning of the school year, up to 40,000 teachers were missing in all federal states.
The provision of lessons has deteriorated in all federal states, said the President of the German Teachers' Association Heinz-Peter Meidinger in August.
"Nationwide, we assume a real gap of at least 30,000, maybe even up to 40,000 vacancies."
kha/dpa
