Status: 11/16/2021 4:05 a.m.
Distance lessons, air filter systems, compulsory masks – during the pandemic there was no shortage of irritating topics in everyday school life. Now the next wave is rolling towards students and teachers. Experts urge you to act decisively.
It has now been two weeks since NRW Education Minister Yvonne Gebauer abolished the mask requirement in North Rhine-Westphalia. And at the same time announced full-bodied: In view of the various protective measures, schools are by no means the drivers of the pandemic, but rather “brake disks”. Andreas Bartsch can only partially agree to this. The President of the North Rhine-Westphalian Teachers’ Association describes his impressions from the past fourteen days: “The pupils seem to be more capable of learning than politics. I would say three quarters of them still wear the mask.”
Voluntariness creates disputes
Bartsch is happy about so much common sense, but also experiences increasing arguments between students who voluntarily wear masks and those who prefer to do without them. Not only because of the social peace in the classes, he wants the mask requirement back in NRW: “School is not an island or an isolation ward. Pupils go home, into the families, to the grandparents. And that is the great concern that this is where the virus is transmitted. “
According to the NRW Ministry of Education, the infection rate in the North Rhine-Westphalian schools has so far been inconspicuous. On request, the results of a survey among the schools are shared: of the almost 2.3 million antigen self-tests carried out, a total of almost 2500 test results are positive – a share of 0.11 percent. Against this background, there is currently no reason to question the applicable regulations. Nevertheless, the state government continues to monitor the infection process very closely.
54,000 students in quarantine
Because the nationwide situation is developing dynamically: The latest figures from the Standing Conference show more than 23,000 infected schoolchildren and 1,770 sick teachers nationwide for the beginning of November. More than 54,000 students and a little more than 1,000 teachers are also in quarantine. This means that the proportion of students and teachers isolated at home is still below one percent in almost all countries.
“But that is less because the infection rate is not high, says Heinz-Peter Meidinger, Bartsch’s federal colleague from the German Teachers’ Association.” It is because the quarantine measures are now limited to the bare minimum in many federal states. ” only infected schoolchildren were sent home – but not the classmates sitting around the affected children.
Loss of control in hotspot regions
In terms of the number of infected students, schools are now in worse shape than ever, says Meidinger. “It’s no wonder, since we have the most unvaccinated people in this age group.” In fact, just under 50 percent of the twelve to seventeen year olds have just received their first vaccination. As a rule, children under twelve have not yet been vaccinated in Germany. BioNTech / Pfizer has already applied for U12 vaccine approval, and the European Medicines Agency wants to make a decision by Christmas.
But there are still just under six weeks until Christmas. Time that, according to Meidinger, could be decisive: “We are now on the verge of losing control, especially in the hotspot regions.” He should know: Meidinger’s Bavarian home district of Rottal-Inn has a 7-day incidence of over 1260 – the second highest value in the Federal Republic, just behind the district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains.
Health authorities in many regions of Germany are already overwhelmed and staff are no longer able to process the many reports from schools. And that although Bavaria, for example, has already reintroduced the mask requirement in schools.
Three scenarios for the future
For Meidinger there are only three scenarios: The infection in schools in order to get an immunization before a vaccine is approved. However, due to the unpredictable long-term effects, this cannot be justified in any case. The second scenario would be a déjà vu: “We are heading for school closings again, which we definitely don’t want again.” But school closings are already increasing in the particularly badly affected regions. According to the state government, more than 50 schools in Saxony are now either completely or partially closed.
Meidinger relies on a third option: to do everything in schools to uphold health protection. For him that means: “Mask requirement, finally call up these hundreds of millions for room air filter systems, as well as tightly scheduled tests.” Vaccination offers are still necessary – also in the vicinity of schools, for children and adolescents who could already be vaccinated. And which scenario is the most likely? “As a pedagogue, I’m always an optimist,” says Meidinger, “maybe politicians have heard the shot after all.”