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Children have to go back to studying at home from Tuesday. New material is not taught and homework is postponed. However, there should be learning stations in schools.
It was discussed for a long time within the turquoise green government, now it is fixed: the schools will close again. Next Monday, November 16, will be the last day of classes for now. After the upper grades, the remaining schools (from elementary school to lower grades) will also switch to distance education starting Tuesday. The kindergartens remain open for “those in need of care”. This provides for a score from the Ministry of Education. The most important questions at a glance.
What will happen in schools next Monday?
According to the Ministry of Education, a “normal school day” should take place. Teachers must equip students with learning and work packages on this day. On this day, school principals must also determine which students are likely to want or need to use the care and support services during the closure.
How long are schools closed?
Face-to-face lessons will resume on December 7 “under changing conditions.” On the so-called window or card day. “Window day is also a serious school day,” Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) said on Saturday afternoon. This start date applies to AHS elementary schools, special schools, new middle schools, and lower schools. It looks different on the upper levels. Here, as the minister describes, high school graduates must return first: “High school graduates take priority.”
Therefore, schools are closed for at least three weeks. Although schools “are not closed,” warned the Minister of Education, the doors remain open. Maybe it’s just a semantic difference, but an important one. Because there will be supervision and educational support in the schools in the coming weeks.
Who can attend school in the next few weeks?
Basically, “everyone who has a need”, as Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) puts it. Faßmann specified a bit later: Care is not only available to children of parents who work in an area critical to the system. No proof is required here.
In general, unlike spring, there should now be “not just emergency care,” as green education spokesperson Sibylle Hamann tells the “press”. More students should come to school. This time there will be more than care. But also educational support. So-called learning stations are created. In small groups, material should also be taught.
Parents can send their children to school by the day or by the hour. Teachers can also force students to visit learning stations. This will mainly occur with children from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and from non-German speaking homes. You don’t want to lose them during the next school closing.
What will be learned in the next few weeks?
In the next three weeks, students “shouldn’t be overwhelmed with new assignments,” as Faßmann put it. So the focus is on getting deeper into the subject. If it is “pedagogically justifiable and feasible,” new content may also be broadcast, based on the ministry’s score. And the department head emphasizes: New material should be transmitted “at the most in moderation.”
What about the exam and homework?
They are being postponed. If school work can no longer be completed at the end of the semester due to a collision with other planned school work, it can be canceled if a grade can also be awarded differently (for example, through participation evaluation). “Additional written performance evaluations”, such as tests, should only be done if such an evaluation is not possible. In the final classes of the upper level, cancellation of school work should be avoided as much as possible.
Can you still send your child to kindergarten?
“Primary education facilities remain open for their normal operation in compliance with hygiene conditions”, this is in the score of the Ministry of Education. That sounds like a normal nursery school in kindergartens. But is not.
Because the government’s appeal was unmistakable on Saturday. Again, only those parents should send their children to kindergarten “in need of care.” It is not necessary to provide evidence, as in some cases in spring. As the Minister of Education said, everything is “ultimately an individual decision of households and families.”
Do I still have to attend the last year of kindergarten?
No. The compulsory kindergarten in the last year before starting school is canceled for this period.
