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Two days before the holidays to reduce contacts and be able to celebrate Christmas quietly with the family, according to the plan of the NRW Prime Minister, Laschet. Other federal states have doubts about the utility and viability of the proposal.
The North Rhine-Westphalia state government’s plan to extend the Christmas holidays by two days to protect itself against the corona virus has been rejected in other federal states.
The debate is whether classes will end on December 18 or December 22. In nine countries, the holidays already begin on December 21.
Reduce contacts for two more days
On Tuesday, NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) announced that the winter school holidays at NRW would start two days earlier, and on Wednesday, NRW School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP) announced the advance.
The background of the considerations is that people should limit their social contacts as much as possible a few days before Christmas so that there are no infections in family celebrations.
Extension shorter than the incubation period
The Lower Saxony state government finds no argument. Even with the early holidays, there would only be five days between the last day of school and Christmas Eve, less than the incubation period for SARS-CoV-2 according to current knowledge.
“We cannot justify sending the false security message,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Culture. However, if the level of knowledge changes, the measure should not be ruled out.
In Bremen, extended Christmas holidays are not a problem either, a spokeswoman for school authorities said.
How to guarantee care?
Criticism also comes from the GEW teachers union. NRW State President Maike Finnern justified her rejection of the measure with the unclear situation of the care of affected children: “From the point of view of families, the measure can only be useful if the care of children it’s guaranteed and if they really use the time as an early quarantine, to be as infection-free as possible by Christmas. “
Nicola Stroop, a board member of the Association of Single Parents in North Rhine-Westphalia, called the move “bad news for single parents.”
Saxon education minister Christian Piwarz (CDU) agreed: “Then we will have a real support problem.”
Spahn: “Pragmatic approach”
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) told the rbb that planning for parents, children, teachers and educators is important. He also spoke of “a pragmatic approach that can be discussed and adopted.”
So far, only Baden-Württemberg has shown interest in regulating NRW. There they want to make the decision on a possible extension of the holidays in charge of the schools. The procedure should be uniformly regulated at the local level, said Education Minister Susanne Eisenmann (CDU).
