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Empty classroom (symbol image): »Schools will definitely remain open«
Photo: Michael Weber / IMAGO
The energy crisis should not be felt in the classrooms.
The state ministers of education have given assurances that the schools will not be closed in the coming months, even if there is a possible gas shortage.
They are also committed to ensuring that the facilities are sufficiently heated.
"Schools will definitely remain open this autumn and winter, even in the energy crisis," said the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) and Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education, Karin Prien (CDU), on the sidelines of the consultations with her colleagues from the federal states .
You owe that to the students as a society after two and a half years of the pandemic.
Wherever possible, schools should make a contribution to saving energy.
»However, this expressly does not apply to lowering the temperature as in other areas.
Children must not be cold in schools,” added Prien.
Hamburg's school senator Ties Rabe (SPD) said that there would be a lot of pressure to ensure that school authorities, municipalities, the federal and state governments worked together to ensure that students did not freeze in class, but could learn well.
Research institutions are also systemically relevant
The Ministers of Education are also calling for universities and research institutions to ensure that they can operate on site.
"The energy crisis must not turn into an ice age for research and teaching," said Bavaria's Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) on Thursday after consultations with the KMK.
Universities, university clinics, non-university research institutions and student unions are systemically relevant.
"We are both convinced that in the higher education sector, one semester must be guaranteed after the students have had to accept considerable restrictions in their education and in their social life for two and a half years," said KMK President Prien.
In the event of a gas shortage, the KMK specifically called for the protection of non-university research institutions and student unions and asked the federal government to clarify that these institutions, along with universities and university clinics, belong to the group of protected customers.
Private households, kindergartens, schools, clinics, universities, the police and fire brigade or electricity and water suppliers are among the legally protected customers who continue to be supplied with gas.
The KMK also demanded that the facilities mentioned should also fall under the protection of the planned energy price brake.
kfr/dpa
