The summer holidays are beginning, but nothing is known about the Ministry of Education’s plans for dealing with the corona pandemic in the fall. The Bavarian working group (Arge) of parents’ associations, which includes the State Parents’ Association (LEV) of high schools in Bavaria, the State Parents’ Association of Bavarian Realschulen and the State Parents’ Association of Technical Colleges, is therefore sounding the alarm and calling for clear concepts for different incidences. “It cannot be that the Ministry of Education refuses to create plans and scope for action for different scenarios,” says Hans Hofmann, member of the LEV board and chairman of the parents’ council at the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium in Garching. According to the LEV, in the fourth pandemic school year, quick-fix actions and weekly changing strategies should not be used again.
The parents’ associations are calling for more administrative staff to relieve school management and educators. “At our school, a teacher is employed as a hygiene officer who has to implement the constantly changing requirements of the Ministry of Education,” says Hofmann. She does it very well, but “on top” of her actual work. The parents’ associations also see room for improvement in digitalisation. School networks have to be upgraded in such a way that hybrid teaching scenarios can be covered and streaming from the class also works. LEV Chairwoman Birgit Bretthauer demands that school books be available digitally. Hofmann and Bretthauer also advocate involving parents’ councils on questions such as distance learning.