Elementary students are now tested three times a week – politics

In the future, even more tests will be conducted in schools. Education Minister Faßmann (ÖVP) announced rapid tests for every Friday of the week.

In addition to the fixed points on Mondays and Wednesdays, in the future students will also undergo a rapid corona test every Friday. Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) confirmed this to the APA on Monday. Previously, the online edition of “Profil” reported about it. It is said that primarily elementary school students will be affected by the measure, but also AHS middle school students and lower grades if they come to school on Friday for school work.

Faßmann did not initially name a start date for the “Friday Tests”. The exact date depends on the capabilities of the test equipment. The minister announced the start “in the near future.” Specifically, Faßmann is currently assuming a start in March.

Teachers should also be evaluated more

Elementary school students currently attend school five days a week. However, “nose piercing tests” are only performed on Monday and Wednesday of the week. All other students attend classroom lessons only in turns with two groups. That means: two days at home, two days of classroom instruction. Basically everyone is home on Friday. However, the measure is not entirely new. Because the students who were seen in the schools on Friday have already been evaluated.

Teaching staff must now also receive one additional quick test per week. An additional measure to the professional group tests and the previous ones in schools. However, the selection of professional groups is not mandatory for teachers. Teachers who refuse to take the exam must teach with an FFP2 mask. For everyone else, protection of the mouth and nose is sufficient.

Directors’ request

“We want to enable a third test for elementary school children, because they are in class in the classroom five days a week,” Faßmann said of the APA. “This means that the frequency of testing is even higher and we are meeting the request of many school principals. This way we can detect even more infectious children at an early stage and prevent more infections.”

In the last week alone, around 900 rapid tests of students and educators have tested positive. 40 Austrian schools had to switch to distance education due to the infections that occurred.