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Minister Faßmann qualifiziert Masken-Pflicht für Schüler als „gelinderes Mittel“.
© BUNDESKANZLERAMT
By Karin Leitner
Vienna – Since yesterday there is not only supervision in educational institutions, but there is teaching again. That doesn’t apply to everyone. “Distance learning” remains popular with most high school students and students. There are high school graduates and compulsory school students on site. Only elementary students do not have to wear a mask during class; it is mandatory for everyone else.
It is “the softest means” to allow “face-to-face teaching”, says ÖVP Education Minister Heinz Faßmann. Those who need a break from MNS can do so – “preferably with the windows open”. A school “is not an operating room,” he says.
“We have broken chains of contagion”
So that no educator is infected in front of the students, those of six federal states were able to take the test last weekend; likewise, the kindergarten staff. 72 percent of them did. 0.24 percent, that is, about 300 people, obtained a positive result. There are no figures for Vienna, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, because kindergarten teachers and teachers take part in massive general tests. The fact that two-thirds of teaching staff in Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Burgenland, Styria, Carinthia and Salzburg have been tested for the virus is “more than a respectable value” for Faßmann. This is great. “We have broken chains of infection.”
The proportion of educators who tested positive is lower than that reported in Statistics Austria’s “dark figures study” in November; there it was 3.1 percent. Now that the positive results have not been confirmed by PCR testing, the current value could decrease. How do you explain the difference with the “study of the dark figure”? Faßmann has two theses: those who are health conscious and who adhere to the rules tend to be voluntarily evaluated. Y: The “dark figure study” was conducted at the height of the second Corona wave, the mass testing of teachers at the end of the second “hard lockdown.”
Upcoming tests in January
Testing in schools “would become normal,” says Fassmann. The next one will be in January. Whether mass or “specific decentralized” testing is open.
Not only teachers infected students before the shutdown, but those teachers as well. Why are students not tested? Fassmann refers to their large number: 1.1 million. Also, some testing methods cannot be expected of younger students from a parent’s point of view. “We still have to reflect on that. We still have a little time here. ” New processes are constantly appearing on the market.
