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Despite the change of the traffic light from Corona to orange in seven districts, “schools are still yellow and so are universities,” Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) told a press conference on Tuesday. Follow the recommendation of the Corona Traffic Light Commission. The SPÖ and NEOS speak of “traffic light chaos” in view of the procedure. Teacher representatives see school locations on their own.
Fassmann reaffirmed that he would stick to his course of leaving schools open as long as possible. The current infection process shows that this is also “epidemiologically justifiable”. Originally it had been said that high schools in orange districts could switch to homeschooling. Cancellation of school events, outdoor singing only, and online-only teacher conferences would have been the result of the orange light.
Since the school started, 202 verified cases of infection have been counted among around 1.1 million students and 28 among educators (with a staff of around 123,000 teachers across Austria), according to the minister. Pay close attention to where the infections come from and under what conditions transmission occurs. It shows that only four percent of the cases are related to schools. There are mostly recorded cases, there are no school clusters, and they very rarely move into the area of ”subordinate importance,” Fassmann said of students under the age of twelve.
Therefore, in consultation with experts, it was decided to “decouple the traffic light color measurements.” The minister emphasized that there is no type of second crown traffic light for the education sector. The decision is made in close consultation with experts from your department, medical colleges, and members of the federal government. “The Corona semaphore is no longer a fixed planning instrument, but a transparency instrument that ultimately only shows the intensity of the infection,” Faßmann said.
Students, teachers and parents need stability and not daily changes. Universities could also continue with their previous plans for the winter semester starting in early October under the above conditions. Previously, the university rectors had expressed their “uncertainty” and “frustration” over the new change of traffic lights, so the minister was understanding. There will be a mix of face-to-face and online teaching, the proportion of which universities will “shape proportionally to the infection situation.”
Fassmann stressed that there was “an open problem” in the rapid testing of suspected cases in schools. “It is taking too long,” said the minister. It is not acceptable that, in suspected cases, classes are sometimes left “in an ambivalent state of limbo” for days, if it is also seen that the existing testing capabilities at the Vienna Biocenter, for example, are not being used. The minister emphasized that he will work to ensure that these resources enter the system, referring to the monitoring of tests in schools from the end of September.
Opposition representatives said they were not very satisfied with the way the new traffic light circuit was being used in education: For SPÖ education spokesperson Sonja Hammerschmid, “traffic light chaos must not become a school chaos “:” Nobody knows what the different colors mean to them. Schools mean. ” Safety and planning would be different, the ministry had not come up with a concept in recent months that would guarantee a safe start at school. The fact that high school students are not being sent home is “basically good,” Hammerschmid said.
For Martina Künsberg Sarre, education spokesperson for NEOS, “different traffic lights in different colors do not provide safety.” According to Faßmann, it is not clear who decides on which database “what applies and what happens in schools and universities”. There is “great uncertainty” among those affected: “A Corona traffic light, a school traffic light, a university traffic light, all with different colors, is certainly not the solution.”
Thomas Krebs (FCG), the chief representative of the Vienna Compulsory School teacher staff, sees the locations of schools with the crown-related situation often left alone by the authorities. The tests are “laborious and lengthy. Waiting times until tests are performed and a result is finally available usually takes several days.” The schools “would urgently need help.” Thomas Bulant of Social Democratic Teachers Austria (SLÖ) demanded “a catalog of measures with government case studies, so that schools can deal with suspected cases regardless of competition disputes and waiting loops in staffed authorities. “.
Those: APA
