Thuringia closes schools in January: Mask and test refusers will be banned from entering in the future

Created: 12/22/2021, 3:59 PM

By: Luisa Billmayer

State Education Minister Helmut Holter (left) will close the schools in Thuringia until mid-January.

© Montage: Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa, Martin Schutt / dpa / dpa-Zentralbild

Thuringia reacted to the corona situation and will be the first federal state to close schools in 2022.

State Education Minister Holter also expects the federal government to take a clear course.

Erfurt - The Christmas holidays will be extended by two days for schoolchildren in Thuringia.

After that, the lessons take place remotely again.

Thuringia's Minister of Education, Helmut Holter (left), presented a new “timetable” for schools in the corona pandemic on Wednesday, December 22nd.

Corona: Thuringia closes schools in January and has a clear appeal to the federal government

“In order to organize the next phases”, the first two days after the planned end of the vacation would be free of classes.

Actually, the school would have started again on January 3rd.

Now it should not start again until January 5th - but not in attendance.

Until January 14th, the children and young people will be looked after via distance learning.

Holter also said that emergency care should be available for children whose legal guardians work in the critical infrastructure.

There are exceptions for Abitur classes, special schools remain open.

From January 17th, Thuringia wants to enable distance learning for all school classes.

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Thuringia's education minister sees corona risk for and through children

Thuringia's Minister of Health Holter justifies his actions with the findings on the Omikron variant from the Federal Government's Expert Council. "The opinion of the Expert Council says that, unlike the previous virus mutations, it will also have an effect on children and adolescents - hopefully in a lighter form - and thus children and adolescents will also contribute more intensively to the spread of this virus," said Holter in one virtual press conference. From this he deduced that school operations must also make a contribution in the now necessary pandemic fight.

There is also a mask requirement and a test requirement. Children must test negative for the coronavirus twice a week in order to enter schools. Furthermore, there are bans on entry for the entire school family in the case of cold symptoms. From January, the following also applies: Against mask and test refusers, one wants to act more intensively. "These students are denied access to the school," Holter clarified. In this case there is no entitlement to emergency care.

The Minister of Health also stated that the schools had done their best with this.

"I assume that tough decisions will be made at the Prime Minister's Conference at the beginning of the year, no later than January 7th," said Holter's appeal to the federal and state governments.

"It cannot be that the education sector alone will bear the burden of fighting the pandemic".