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Orphaned classroom in Baden-Württemberg
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Teachers' associations and unions have asked Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the Prime Minister to adopt a uniform step-by-step plan with binding criteria for school openings at the planned Corona meeting on Wednesday.
"Schools cannot be opened at the push of a button," said the chairwoman of the German Association of Philologists, Susanne Lin-Klitzing, to the newspapers that are part of the "Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND)".
She called for a "cautious, intelligent and clear step-by-step plan that is based on the pandemic and the level of security for everyone involved in the schools."
R-value must be "well below 1"
The head of the association said: "We finally need nationwide uniform criteria for school openings so that schools cannot reopen all at the same time, but all according to the same criteria." Among other things, a stable incidence value of well below 50 new infections per 100,000 is necessary People at the school location and in the hometowns and districts of the students.
Before the beginning of the alternating lessons, it must also be ensured that “the students can come to class in uncrowded buses and trains,” said Lin-Klitzing.
»Criteria for further school openings beyond emergency care and final classes should also be, for example, a stable R value well below 1, only moderate utilization of the health system and the vaccination rate in the population and especially among the teachers.«
Classes should be halved
The head of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Marlis Tepe, also called for "a nationwide uniform, reliable step-by-step plan."
This means that countries, districts and cities would "then have the opportunity to act flexibly with a view to the local infection situation".
The "federal mess" must finally be ended, Tepe told the RND.
If the incidence value is below 50, the schools should prepare for the opening again on the basis of the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute.
The union boss initially promoted alternating classes.
"It is crucial that the number of students in the classes is halved and that fixed groups are formed," she said.
»This can reduce the risk of infection for teachers, learners and their families.
At the same time, the teachers can keep in regular contact with all students. "
The chairman of the Association for Education and Upbringing (VBE), Udo Beckmann, also called for a clear step-by-step plan: "It must be clear to all those involved, from which incidence value what happens - and uniformly nationwide in order to be able to argue comprehensibly," he said RND.
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