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KShortly after the start of the new school year in all federal states, teachers’ associations and education unions obtain mixed interim results. The fact that it has performed so well under Corona conditions is due less to the “comprehensive hygiene plans” of the Conference of Education Ministers and individual state ministries, but to the fact that the infection rate in Germany is still manageable, said the president of the Association of German Teachers, Heinz-Peter. Meidinger, the German Press Agency. “The real test is still ahead,” he said, looking ahead to fall and winter.
“Everybody tries, but it depends a bit on luck,” said Ilka Hoffmann, a member of the Board of Education and Science Union (GEW). There is a lot of uncertainty. School administrators complained that many got stuck with them and that there was a lack of political support. “There are requirements that in some cases cannot be met, for example due to structural conditions. And if something goes wrong, it means someone has probably had a party. “
The president of the Association for Education and Parenting (VBE), Udo Beckmann, made a similar statement. “The new school year began with great uncertainties that have yet to be resolved.”
The Teachers Association appreciates that face-to-face teaching is once again taking place in full classes and study groups in all federal states and that in some federal states it has been possible to incorporate more teaching personnel into schools. Progress had also been made in the loan of equipment for students and in equipping teachers with work laptops. There were also signs of progress in professional maintenance of IT systems in schools.
Michael Piazolo, Minister of Culture of Bavaria, visits the Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium in Unterhaching.
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Image: dpa
However, Meidinger again expressed criticism about how different the approach is in federal states: “There are countries with step-by-step plans and some without, there are countries with mask requirements and some without, there are countries that isolate learning groups each other, and those who do this Limit the cohorts of several hundred students, there are countries with series of tests for teachers and some without them ”. That doesn’t necessarily increase confidence in politics.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has made school problems a top priority. After a first meeting with some country representatives, the Minister of Education Anja Karliczek (CDU) and the leader of the SPD, Saskia Esken, in August, another meeting is scheduled at the Foreign Ministry on Monday. On this occasion, the ministers of education from all federal states will participate. The main focus will once again be on the technical equipment and digitization of schools.
We have gone a little further here, said GEW school expert Hoffmann, “but there is still a lot of room for improvement.” During crown-related school closures, it became apparent that homework distribution, communication, and teaching via the Internet only worked to a limited extent. The grand coalition then launched a € 500 million program to purchase loan equipment for needy students. Teachers will now be equipped with work laptops worth € 500 million more. How quickly this will roll out is still open.
“We dragged the problems of school closings,” Hoffmann said. Compensating for the learning delays of disadvantaged students is nearly impossible in terms of time and staff. “There are just too many construction sites and no problem can be fixed quickly,” said Beckmann, head of VBE. Due to past negligence, school administration work feels like playing Twister: “Can I close the hole in the wall (school building) and screw the smart board to the wall with my foot (digitizing), but still I miss it? Teacher who can represent math in 8a (lack of teachers) “.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach called for it to be ensured in any case that the lessons could continue even if the number of infections increased. Lauterbach told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday): So far, you have seen very few concepts about how school operations should be maintained “if there are more infections soon and at the same time the ventilation concepts no longer work due to the drop in outside temperatures “. Ventilation systems or “teaching concepts to ensure spatial distance between children and youth” are necessary.
