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Only when a negative test result is presented for a suspected case should the classroom community return to face-to-face teaching. If the test result is positive, all students must be evaluated according to the ÖLI-UG presentation and the classroom lessons must only take place again after the end of the quarantine period, regardless of the age of the students and the type of school. and the type of school.
Instead, the regulation of the Ministry of Education and Health, which only became more precise last week, establishes that an entire class is not automatically segregated in case of suspicion or illness. In case of suspicion, the lessons will continue as normal, unless the health authorities give instructions to the contrary. For children under the age of ten, special rules also apply in the case of confirmed infections: if there is a positive case in an elementary school class, not all classmates are tested. Even if they have previously had close contact with the person who tested positive, these students are only listed as “Category II contact persons” and are not automatically quarantined.
Better protect teachers
The ÖLI-UG representatives justify their demand for more protection measures with the fact that this is the only way to prevent an incipient infection process in schools. You must prevent students from infecting each other and protect teachers; after all, 40 percent of educators in Austria are over the age of 50 and have a significantly higher risk of a severe course of Covid-19. The ÖLI-UG accuses those responsible for education of gross negligence because they have argued in the ORF that the schools are kept open saying that, anyway, not the students, but “only the teachers” are infected there, and therefore both are preparing reports.
In another letter, independent teacher representatives also point out the particular danger of special educators. “Children and adolescents who are entrusted to them often act on impulses due to their physical, mental or psychological deficiencies. Many of them scratch, bite, spit or have uncontrolled bodily functions.” Although these students are often unable to comply with distance rules and are generally exempt from the mask requirement, they are the only ones who receive face-to-face lessons even when the light is red. Both students and teachers had already demonstrated during the confinement that successful distance learning was also possible in their case. Therefore, teacher representatives demand the right to FFP2 masks for all teachers whose students cannot comply with the rules of the crown, as well as additional staff, to allow significantly smaller groups at least during the crisis of the crown.
Mandatory mask for students required
Under the motto “Healthy teachers in healthy schools”, a Viennese teacher has also started a petition calling for smaller groups, shift work, a mask requirement for all students aged ten and over, air filters in all classes and rental of additional rooms. “We want to teach and not be burned,” says the petition, which until today, Tuesday noon, has had around 2,000 supporters. The initiator does not understand that school classes are considered communities of homes. After all, factory workers would not be declared a family community. “A bad joke” for her is also that teachers should only meet six people in a room in their private life, but at the same time feel safe in a fully occupied school class. “They want to persuade us teachers that the mechanisms of viral infection no longer apply in closed rooms as soon as it says ‘school’ on the outside.”
(Those: APA)
