Pandemic and health policy measures during the corona pandemic repeatedly resulted in schools and care facilities having to close. In an international comparison, schools in Germany were closed for a particularly long time. In return, the restrictions for adults were mostly less strict than in other European countries. It is therefore to be welcomed that the current Corona measures consistently exploit the potential of contact restrictions in public life and at work, but schools and childcare facilities remain open – with a mask requirement from school age.
In current studies, there are already significant learning deficits as a result of the corona-related school closings. The negative effects are stronger for younger children than for older ones – and particularly noticeable for children and adolescents from socially disadvantaged families. Without targeted countermeasures, the learning deficits will have a clearly negative long-term effect on individual incomes and overall economic productivity. These developments are particularly serious at a time when the shortage of skilled workers is one of the greatest challenges in our aging society. The Ifo Institute and the Advisory Council have repeatedly warned that countermeasures should be taken at an early stage. Education must be given top priority in the interests of all of us.
Against this background, it is worrying that increasing educational losses are going under the radar in many places. A large proportion of the children and young people are still unvaccinated. The quarantine cases have been increasing for weeks. There are currently over 150,000 schoolchildren in quarantine across Germany. It will continue to affect many people well into the coming year.
Ludger Wößmann, economics professor at the University of Munich, specializes in educational topics.
(Photo: private)
The way schools deal with this situation is not regulated uniformly. Information on how those affected should participate in lessons can be found on the information pages about Corona and school, if at all, sparse. Apparently there is no binding concept for schooling during quarantine, although it will affect many and – once again – the socially disadvantaged more often.
Schools handle quarantine cases differently. Some of them switch pupils in quarantine digitally to lessons and of course switch to digital lessons in the event of a quarantine for class groups. Others treat individual quarantined students like illness. You will need to get homework and teaching materials from your classmates yourself. Quarantined classes are sometimes sent work assignments for a week without any further contact with the teaching staff.
All of this obviously seems to be in line with the applicable requirements of the authorities, because there are no clear guidelines for the procedure. It is therefore not expedient to pillory individual schools for how they deal with the situation. School administrators operate in a complex network of different ideas from teachers, students and parents. Those involved are often under pressure themselves. Even within the individual groups, the ideas differ.
The education ministries must set clear standards
It seems all the more important that the ministries of education set clear standards for dealing with quarantine as quickly as possible. Because the situation will not relax anytime soon – on the contrary. It is to be expected that, given the high incidence, many students will be continuously affected.
In essence, it must be about digitally including schoolchildren in the classroom, even during quarantine periods, via learning platforms and through digital connections. Due to the digitization that schools experienced in the wake of the pandemic, this should be possible across the board. There should be a clear requirement that quarantined pupils can be connected to the classroom online via video connection. As a rule, they are not sick and can therefore follow the lessons. Where digital connection is not yet possible, this should be implemented quickly – both in school and with all children and young people at home. The learning platforms that are now in place can be used to provide materials so that quarantined students also have direct access to the teaching materials.
Children and adolescents from disadvantaged social backgrounds and those with learning backlogs should also receive more intensive care in the quarantine. This requires staff who provide additional support in the afternoon so that they do not fall further behind the current level of performance in the class. Here, the state should make an effort to provide additional staff resources at short notice.
If an entire class group has to be in quarantine, the lessons should be continued online. Equipping schools with digital devices should allow teachers to offer lessons from the classroom, for example. Digital participation in lessons would also be made much easier for everyone if there were finally clear regulations in all federal states – ideally nationally – which video conferencing applications schools can use in a legally secure manner and in compliance with data protection regulations.
In its ruling on the Corona emergency brake, the Federal Constitutional Court en passant established a “right of children and adolescents vis-à-vis the state to school education” at the end of November 2021. Not least for this reason, those responsible at all levels should ensure that, within the scope of the possibilities now available at all schools, really all pupils are able to participate in the lessons on a permanent basis. Failure to do this not only harms those affected and means a further step backwards for equity in education. It weakens the resilience of our society and harms us all.
Veronika Grimm is professor of economic theory at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg and member of the Expert council to assess macroeconomic development.
Ludger Woessmann directs that ifo Center for the Economics of Education and is professor of economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich.