Lolli tests are much easier and safer for students.
But: They cause enormous effort, report the teachers in the Freising district.
Freising
- Regular corona tests are now part of everyday life at Bavarian schools.
Three weeks ago, elementary and special schools switched from self-tests to particularly safe PCR pool tests with so-called lollipop tests.
These are more accurate and easier and more comfortable for the students than the nasal swab.
For the teachers, however, the tests are associated with a lot more work, as two school principals from the district tell.
Maintain the online database, compile material for each student, label tubes, prepare packages for the laboratory: "The logistics in the background are significantly more complex," reports Elisabeth Gaßner, principal at the Vötting primary school.
"Once you've prepared all of this, things will go very well."
Each child receives two cotton swabs
Lollipop tests are carried out twice a week at the Vötting elementary school - as at all other elementary schools. That means: Each child is given two cotton swabs, which they should suck on for 30 seconds each - like a lollipop. The first chopsticks are put together in a large pool tube. The second “lollipops”, i.e. the reserve samples, are put into a single tube that is provided with a barcode. It is used to determine possible corona cases should the pool test of a class turn out positive.
On the test days, the children need around 15 to 20 minutes for the procedure and therefore “actually no longer than with the previous tests,” says Gaßner.
And the girls and boys would master the lollipop tests “very confidently”: “It's actually part of everyday school life.” And the teachers?
For them, the tests mean additional organizational effort - especially when new test material is delivered every two weeks and this has to be prepared, says Gaßner.
Or if new barcode labels have to be entered and processed in the database every three months.
The rector knows that the tests “make sense” - and is happy to accept the effort “if the schools remain open for them”.
And she is convinced: "You can't do it any safer."
"Much more pleasant" than the nasal swab
Thomas Dittmeyer, Rector at the Zolling elementary and middle school, also knows that the tests are time-consuming.
The primary school students are tested from the beginning of the first lesson - the number of tested students must be reported in the online portal by 10 a.m.
The samples are picked up around 10.30 a.m. and brought to the laboratory.
The parents receive the first results in the late afternoon - but no later than 6 a.m. the next morning.
If the pool test in a class is negative, all children are allowed to go to school.
If the result of the pool test is positive, retesting is carried out using the reserve samples.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
The middle school students in Zolling are still tested three times a week - with the self-tests.
And here, too, everything runs smoothly, reports the Zollingen primary school rector.
"Unfortunately, it's just part of it at the moment."
