Municipalities require the exclusion of non-tested students from face-to-face classes

Status: 3:14 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes.

DThe Association of Towns and Municipalities calls for schoolchildren who do not want to undergo a corona test to be excluded from face-to-face classes. “If you don’t want to get tested, you shouldn’t be allowed to attend classes at the school in person after the Easter holidays,” general manager Gerd Landsberg told the Funke media group newspapers. “We don’t need discussions now, we need concrete measures.”

What is needed is “a clear and understandable concept that must be implemented consistently and then have the buy-in and support of the population,” Landsberg said. In this way “common sense and responsibility” could be gained. “However, lack of solidarity and irrationality must also have consequences: those who do not comply with tests and quarantine should not expect to be treated like everyone else,” Landsberg emphasized. “This also applies to schools.”

The president of the Association of German Teachers, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, also advocates compulsory tests for students after the Easter holidays. “The Association of German Teachers fully supports the demand of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities for a comprehensive test requirement for pupils of all ages as a prerequisite for participation in face-to-face lessons,” said Meidinger WELT. “A comprehensive test, mandatory throughout the country, at least twice a week, but ideally daily, is the second important component for greater health protection in schools, along with early vaccination of teachers, and a basic requirement to keep them open if the incidence figures allow it. “

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A rapid test strategy that relies on voluntary action or is carried out without effective monitoring is completely inadequate for this, according to Meidinger. “Then you can drop the test entirely.” He doubts that the obligation to perform the test can be delegated to the parents, because then there would be no control. Testing schools again is a huge additional burden on school administrators and teachers, “for which schools need staff and logistical support.”

Beckmann: “It remains questionable whether duty is the only way”

The president of the Association for Education and Parenting (VBE), Udo Beckmann, on the other hand, is skeptical about mandatory tests for students. “It’s about evaluating as many students as possible. It remains questionable whether duty is the only way, ”he told WELT. There are many unanswered questions. More important than duty is clarifying how tests can be handled in practice. “Testing together in the classroom carries several risks, such as jostling or jostling during implementation,” Beckmann said. “That is why we reject the tests that are the responsibility of the teachers. It would be ideal if the tests at the school were accompanied by external personnel, so the test result should be available before school starts ”. Additionally, sufficient testing is required so that all students can be tested at least twice a week.

Beckmann also called for more support for schools in implementation. “The mandatory testing requirement quickly becomes a beacon when you look at how schools are left outside in the rain during implementation,” he complained. “Even if this obligation were to apply from the first day after the Easter holidays, it would mean that the school management and teachers would have to prepare for it again in the next week and then answer the many questions that arise, such as how to deal with it and be left alone with people who refuse to take the test anyway “

Saxony, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia had already announced that they would introduce compulsory tests for schoolchildren after the Easter holidays. The North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Education said Thursday that the details of the compulsory test will be decided in coordination with the other federal states.