Corona: from the first case to renewed distance learning in schools



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February 26, 2020: At the Albertgasse primary school in Vienna-Josefstadt, the first suspected case of coronavirus was known in a school, the school and the surrounding streets were closed for hours. The corona test is negative. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) is ruling out a prophylactic ban in schools or kindergartens at this time.

February 28th: In Lower Austria, the first really confirmed case of corona is known in a school.

March 10th: Field trips, trips, and school events will be suspended until further notice.

March 16: Face-to-face teaching will be discontinued in schools and kindergartens will also be closed. Child care offerings are only available to those under 14 when there is an urgent need, but only a very few use them. First, students must delve into material already known at home through digital distance education or with copied learning packages, from the third week students must also work on new material themselves.

May 4: Students in Matura classes or final classes in vocational schools and vocational middle schools return to their classes to complete the final school year or to prepare for the matriculation exam or other final exams.

May 15: Nine weeks after the school closes, all 700,000 students from elementary, middle and special schools, as well as lower secondary schools, are returning to their classes. Classes are divided and taught alternately in shifts, there are no more school assignments and exams only in exceptional cases. In addition, strict hygiene measures and a mask requirement are applied away from the seat.

25 of May: The Matura in the Corona year starts three weeks later than planned. Written exams are only available in three subjects, so the final certificate from the last class is included in the grade. There is no oral Matura.

3. June: Face-to-face classes are also starting anew for about 300,000 students at polytechnic schools, trade schools, senior high schools, and vocational middle and high schools (BMHS). With the return of the Pentecost holiday, the requirement of the mask also falls in the schools, the gymnastics lessons banned until then can take place at least in the afternoon and singing is allowed in class again.

1st of July: Due to a crown group in connection with the “Free Christian Community” in Linz, the state government will close schools and kindergartens in five districts of Upper Austria for a week. Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) criticizes the large-scale closures.

17. August: Faßmann announces a “normal regular operation” complying with the classic hygiene and distance regulations in the fall and presents his plan of what safety measures should be applied in schools with the different colors of the Corona traffic light, which the Corona Commission of each district should apply weekly. it changes again. The plan provides for distance education only when the traffic light is red; Orange onward, high school classes will be sent to distance education. When the traffic light is yellow, it must be mandatory to wear a mask outside of class, and there are restrictions on sports and singing.

7. September: After the Corona traffic light in the federal capital turns yellow, Viennese pupils start the new school year with the mandatory mask, their colleagues in Lower Austria and Burgenland without.

14. September: The measures in the schools will be decoupled from the corona traffic light. On the recommendation of the Corona Commission, it is now mandatory to wear a mask outside of class in all schools. At the same time, Faßmann makes it clear that even in districts with orange traffic lights, “school traffic lights” still glow yellow and high school students are not sent to distance education. The traffic light remained yellow at the end of October when all of Austria turned red.

October 15th: In Salzburg, the color of the traffic light in schools is set to orange for the first time. According to the ordinance of the Ministry of Education, not only is distance education possible, but also daily changing lessons or parts of classes or groups of students are brought to schools for specific reasons, for example, to prepare for the events. exams or final classes.

October 23: Education officials in the federal states have agreed that schools must remain open even when the crown light is red.

31 October: In the second closure, AHS elementary, middle and special schools and lower levels will remain open, “for the time being,” as Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) emphasizes. The upper levels of AHS, vocational schools, and BMHS are converting to distance learning, but smaller groups can come to schools regardless of school (for example, high school graduates or for remedial teaching and workshops). Classroom teaching is also largely disrupted at universities, technical colleges and teacher training colleges.

14. November: In the wake of the tightening of the lockdown as of November 17, elementary and middle schools, as well as the lower levels of AHS, have to switch to distance learning. If needed, there is on-site supervision and learning support at these grade levels. The compulsory kindergarten for children in the last year of kindergarten has been abolished. There should also be child care offers for all families who register their needs. According to the plan of the Minister of Education Faßmann, students are to return to the classroom on December 7. Tighter safety measures will then be enforced in schools, such as a general mask requirement for all children over the age of ten, autonomous shift work at school, the use of alternative locations for teaching, the use of FFP2 masks for teachers and intensive tests.

(Those: APA)

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