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Thursday 12 November 2020
Homeschooling is making a comeback
More than 3,000 schools that are not in regular operation
Homeschooling Thanks to Corona – In over 3,000 schools across the country, this will be a reality again in November after the spring experience. But the vast majority of students continue to attend school regularly.
Due to the increasing number of coronavirus infections among students and teachers in Germany, according to a newspaper report, more than 3,000 schools in Germany have already abandoned their regular operations. In at least 3,240 schools, face-to-face teaching is no longer fully available, newspapers from the Funke media group report, citing figures from 14 federal states. For comparison: in Germany there are around 40,000 schools with a total of 11 million students and around 800,000 teachers.
In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, students from 552 schools are quarantined by order of health authorities and receive digital education, as the Düsseldorf Ministry of Culture reported to the Funke-Blätter. According to the report, face-to-face classes are no longer held regularly in 255 schools in Bavaria and 273 in Baden-Württemberg.
In Lower Saxony, individual classes or years were temporarily withdrawn from classroom teaching in 347 schools and sent to homeschooling. 221 colleges in the state teach in a so-called alternate model with divided classes, in which some come to school and others learn at home, as Funke newspapers write. In Hamburg, 213 schools are no longer in full normal operation.
According to the report, 109 schools in Thuringia are currently affected by the quarantine measures, 216 in Rhineland-Palatinate, 170 in Brandenburg and 120 in Saxony-Anhalt. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, schools are only partially present in 30 facilities, in Schleswig-Holstein 71 are affected, in Saarland 128 and in Saxony 170 schools. According to this, 365 study groups were closed in Berlin. According to the Funke newspapers, Hesse and Bremen did not provide any information on how many schools currently teach partially or completely at a distance.
Health risks too high?
Hesse’s Education Minister Alexander Lorz told ZDF that 95 percent of students in his state were still attending school. “This is a great achievement in the conditions that we currently find ourselves in in this pandemic,” said the CDU politician. Distance learning cannot fully compensate for face-to-face teaching. There must be a balance between protection against infection, on the one hand, and the educational mandate, on the other.
The president of the education and science union, Marlis Tepe, does not go far enough with the protection measures of the crown in schools. She told the Germany publishing network: “The way things are being taught at the moment, the health risks for students and teachers are too high.” Classes would have to be divided. “One group would be at school and another at home.” For students, it is better to divide classes on time and thus maintain class intervals than to risk that more and more classes have to be completely quarantined.
The president of the Association for Education and Parenting, Udo Beckmann, told RND that the regulations of the health authorities are very different. “If the whole class is in quarantine in one district, in the other it is only the direct neighbors, if they do, because it was aired.” That is incomprehensible and generates resentment and uncertainty. Clear and transparent rules are needed about when who should be quarantined.
Masks also for elementary school students?
On Wednesday, a statement from the Association of German Teachers caused a stir, according to which more than 300,000 students and up to 30,000 teachers are currently in quarantine. Tepe said there was no reliable information. “The 300,000 figure has come out of nowhere.” Beckmann also said: “We don’t know how many teachers and students are in quarantine.”
Veronika Grimm, a member of the Federal Government’s Economic Development Advisory Council, warned against closing schools. “That would have a significant impact on the future prospects of young people,” the economist told RND. He added: “When schools and nurseries are closed, many employees are only available to the company to a limited extent. That is a significant effect in terms of economic development.
Federal Minister for Education Anja Karliczek had spoken out in favor of expanding the requirement for masks in teaching to include primary schools. The president of the professional association of pediatricians, Thomas Fischbach, told the “Welt” that, in principle, there is no health risk associated with a mouth and nose plug for healthy children from the age of two. “The complaints we hear about are subjective discomfort, which we also have as adults. But they are not dangerous or life threatening.” However, only children from the age of six should wear masks if this is epidemiologically necessary. However, he advocated giving students breaks from the mask.
