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Baden-Württemberg is the last federal state in which school starts again today. All other countries have already started teaching in the days of Corona, with different rules and consequences.
By Jennifer Rieger, SWR
Shortly before classes begin, Principal Claus Stöckle’s adrenaline spikes again. “This form gives me a real headache. What if not all the students have it with them today?” Stöckle is the director of the Aurain Realschule in Bietigheim-Bissingen. And “the form” that concerns you is a kind of health certificate that every student must bring, completed. Really. Because that is how the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Education wants it. Theoretically.
Rector Stöckle has often had to experience painfully in recent months that theory and practice do not want to go together properly, especially in the days of the Crown. First the blockade, then the problems with digitization, the implementation of the hygiene concept and now the start of the new school year. “We really gave everything to our performance limits to make a good start to school possible,” said Stöckle. However, it is a bit sick, for example, when looking at other federal states.
The Rector’s concern
All the other federal states have already started teaching and have had different experiences. In Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, an entire school closed its doors last week, 880 students and teachers were sent home in quarantine. So far, individual classes have been quarantined in 21 other schools in Rhineland-Palatinate, in the last four weeks alone.
Stories like these command Rector Stöckle respect, especially since the hygiene standards in the neighboring country are similar to those in Baden-Württemberg. Here as there, lessons in secondary schools should once again be regular lessons and take place in class, according to the so-called cohort principle. That means: there are defined groups that should not be mixed. A mask is not required in the classroom and regular hand washing is recommended.
These rules apply in a similar way throughout Germany, but only in a similar way. The cohort principle in Baden-Württemberg also means that inter-annual learning, that is, in working groups or orchestras, is initially not allowed. In Bremen and Lower Saxony it seems to be a bit more relaxed, here the cohorts can sometimes include several learning groups.
Different regulations
Saxon Culture Minister Christian Piwarz gave an interview to the MDR responsibility for hygiene rests entirely with the schools. “Because when a decision is made on site, it is generally accepted more widely than when I make decisions in my Dresden ministerial office that may not be understandable,” says Piwarz. And in Hessen? Although there is a national exemption from covering your mouth during lessons, the city of Frankfurt reintroduced the requirement to wear masks in classrooms in late August for the first two weeks.
Germany, a patchwork quilt
The crown rules in German schools are a patchwork quilt. This is also due to the regionally different and dynamic infection process. In fact, the number of infections varies across the country. For example, schools in Saxony-Anhalt have been running for two and a half weeks. Last Friday, the first school had to close due to Corona. Schools in Bavaria started again last Tuesday, and there are already more than 1,000 students and more than 200 teachers in quarantine.
The guiding principle currently in force in the policy is that individual school closings are bad, but less catastrophic than a total closure. Rector Claus Stöckle from Bietigheim-Bissingen wants to start the new school year with cautious optimism. “Of course we are feeling an increase in the hectic pace and uncertainty in our parents’ homes. But it can’t be as bad as March again,” he says. “Now we are looking forward to the children.”
