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Schools in the “Corona hot spots” should establish stricter rules for protection against infections in the future, for example by switching to alternate classes for older age groups. Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to this compromise on Wednesday evening after hours of consultation with the prime minister. As Merkel announced at the subsequent press conference, schools in regions with a seven-day incidence of more than 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants must implement new measures for the design of “school-specific” lessons. These should be applied beginning in the eighth grade, but not necessarily for final grades.
Regarding the nature of the measures, the formulation of the round is still very soft: these are measures that “better guarantee the implementation of the AHA-L rules, for example hybrid or alternate lessons,” according to the joint resolution. . AHA-L stands for daily mask, hygiene rules, distance and ventilation.
With this model, students learn in small groups alternately in a kind of shift system so that the minimum distance in the classroom can be maintained. One group learns at school, the other at home, ideally digitally. Daily or weekly swaps are made. According to current data from the Robert Koch Institute, an incidence of more than 200 cases in seven days is currently not exceeded in most districts of Germany. Merkel said Berlin and 62 other districts are currently affected.
Face-to-face teaching remains the “top priority”
With the decision taken on Wednesday, the model of change will not be binding, and less in all areas. The round with the Chancellor suggests that the middle class lessons only depend on the infection rate. Ultimately, the decision remains a matter for the state or is made by the schools on the spot. Apparently, the presiding ministers did not want to make more concessions to the federal government, which had insisted on taking more measures.
The 16 education ministers had also insisted to the end that classroom teaching had “top priority.” Ultimately, this was also confirmed by the federal and state governments in their resolution. Nurseries and schools remained open. The best way to guarantee the right to education is through face-to-face learning and teaching. Other resolutions:
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It was also agreed that a mask is required in class starting in the seventh grade, also depending on the regional Corona numbers. As a fuzzy edge, the document speaks of “significantly more” than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. However, in most federal states it is mandatory for a long time to wear a mask in class, from the fifth grade, in Bavaria even in primary schools.
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The Christmas holidays will start almost everywhere in Germany this year on December 19. Even before the video change, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Baden-Württemberg had announced that they would advance their holidays to this day. The objective is to reduce the number of contacts directly before the holidays and, therefore, the risk of contagion in the family. In most other federal states, the holidays start on December 19 anyway.
“The kitchen table is not the best place to learn”
The return to hybrid teaching was seen as a central point of contention between the Chancellor and the country’s leaders, some of whom had clearly positioned themselves on the side of their school ministers shortly before the video was released. The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet (CDU), strongly promoted face-to-face teaching. »The kitchen table at home in a two- or three-bedroom apartment is not a better place to study. The best place to learn is school, ”he said in state parliament. All prime ministers agree on this.
Baden-Württemberg’s education minister, Susanne Eisenmann, had also vehemently resisted demands to allow students to alternate between teaching at school and at home. “Changing classes in Baden-Württemberg would be an existential mistake,” said the CDU politician. There are also no good arguments why this form of teaching should be introduced to protect against corona infections. “Nothing speaks in favor of alternating classes. There is no substantive justification, no numbers or facts. “In Baden-Württemberg, alternate lessons between Pentecost and the summer holidays had already been tried, but without resounding success.
Several associations of parents and teachers, for their part, have been urging for months to return to hybrid education as in spring, and in fact already with a seven-day incidence of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This is also what the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute offer. So far, however, the federal states have only implemented them sporadically and not nationally, much to the chagrin of many school actors.
The president of the education and science union, Marlis Tepe, had reiterated demands for hybrid teaching before the video change. Protecting the health of teachers, students and parents, on the one hand, and keeping schools open, on the other, cannot be reconciled.
