The minister of culture had hardly spoken warmly in the Munich literary house when his press spokesman stalked from the side and straightened Michael Piazolo’s (FW) nameplate, which was standing across. But there was much more to straighten out for the minister after this crazy school year. Especially the expectations of others. Air filter? “Not a panacea.” Face-to-face teaching? “No guarantee.” Distance and alternation lessons? “Remain in the repertoire.” Corona? “Won’t be over by the start of the school year.”
Face-to-face lessons, distance lessons, alternating lessons, and back to schools – many look back on unsteady times. The calls for normalcy in the coming school year were correspondingly loud recently. But a lot will not change from mid-September: At the press conference on Friday, Minister Piazolo announced that school would start with several weeks of masking and tests. At the same time, he gave face-to-face teaching as a maxim.
Of course, the Bavarian teachers’ associations are also aware of this. Half an hour before the start of the press conference, they sent out a joint demand: The Ministry of Education should oblige all students and teachers to take a PCR test before the start of the new school year. Except that the Ministry of Culture cannot do that without a legal basis. And so Michael Piazolo could only make the appropriate appeal to teachers and students, “that would give an additional security”.
After the summer, this should primarily provide a mask requirement for several weeks in the first two or three weeks. “It’s about getting the new school year off to a good start,” said Piazolo. He referred to the danger of returning travelers. In the past few weeks, various graduating classes in Bavaria have provided a foretaste of things that have become infected on group trips abroad and have increased the incidence in their respective districts.
In order to prevent infection, ventilation and testing should continue to be carried out on a regular basis. In addition, Piazolo served a number that critics, who recently protested loudly in front of the ministry, should appear as a ball: of 930,000 tests, 108 were positive. So wasted money? “No,” emphasized Piazolo. The tests were not just a security gate, but a “game changer” that provided security.
These should of course increase air filter devices even further. In many places where people were hesitant in view of the ambivalent research results and the often desolate budget situation, the pressure is now increasing. In the past, Piazolo had also contributed to this with quite brisk appeals. On Friday he found more conciliatory words. The assessment of the topic is not that easy. Especially since you are not automatically exempt from mask or quarantine regulations and the effectiveness depends on many factors. Air filters are “an addition”, said Piazolo, “no more and no less”. Nevertheless, he appealed to the municipalities to buy air filters: “That strengthens our safety network.”
The night before he was in the line of fire again, this time in the form of school grades. From CSU MP Peter Tomaschko there was a 4, from the Union for Education and Science (GEW) a 4.7. And Piazolo? As usual, he was unimpressed. Anyone can grade him as they wish, “that doesn’t change anything about my self-perception”. Instead of self-criticism, there was a promise: Everything would be done in the ministry to create the safety net necessary for classroom teaching.