School start after flooding: A little bit of normality

The floods damaged numerous schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the start of the new school year, the motto is: improvise. And then there is also Corona.

They didn’t expect that on their last day of school six weeks ago. In the middle of the summer holidays, the entire ground floor of the Pattenhof secondary school in Eschweiler was under water. The cafeteria, sports hall and classrooms were immediately unusable. The walls are still damp. The damage is so great that no one can go to school there and the lessons now have to take place in a different location for the time being.

“We have to improvise”

Now it is a question of the 1000 pupils: bus instead of bike. They could not have counted on this either. Five-minute journeys to school turn into half an hour. “It will be unfamiliar for many, but we have taken all the necessary precautions,” says headmistress Michaela Silbernagel. When she had to see what the flood had done to her secondary school in Eschweiler four weeks ago, it quickly became clear. “We have to improvise. The damage is so great that we will have to find accommodation elsewhere until at least the end of the first half of the year,” says Silbernagel. Fortunately, the city of Würselen, the neighboring town of the affected Eschweiler, can help out.

An old secondary school is standing still there. With blackboards, classrooms and specialist rooms, it still has everything a school needs so that at least normal lessons can take place. First of all, there should be class teacher lessons on the first day, during which everyone gets to know the new school. But in which they can also talk about what has happened so that the teachers also get a feeling for how high the stress on the Eschweiler young people is. Because some of them have lost parts of their old lives and must see together with their parents how they will cope with the coming weeks without a bed, without a kitchen or apartment.

200 million euros for the renovation

A total of more than 150 schools are considered damaged or destroyed. Some of them so much that lessons cannot take place in them. The Ministry of Education has provided 200 million euros for the renovations after the flood disaster. The full extent cannot yet be finalized. Floors, screeds, doors. The need for renovation is high in many schools. For the secondary school in Eschweiler, the city has put the damage at more than two million euros.

And then there is also Corona. At the start of school, it is clear to the 1,000 students in the Eschweiler flood area: Everyone needs a negative corona rapid test. Virtually none of the young people here is vaccinated. But it is just as clear that classes are taking place in person again. Just like school ended before the summer vacation. Many schools now want to use the attendance time to make up for what was lost in distance teaching. This applies to all schools in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Worried look into the future

At the Albert Einstein High School in Kaarst, for example, the school management is in constant stress. For days she has been preparing school books with the entire teaching staff, adapting the lessons from digital to analog again. Headmaster Bruno von Berg is looking forward to the coming period: “Normality is also good and I’m glad that we can start like this again.” Nevertheless, they look to the future with some concern and hope that the situation does not worsen again so much that they have to close again and continue with distance learning.

In any case, they have got enough rapid tests for all the students who are not vaccinated, which the majority would like to be. “Whether parents want to vaccinate their children is clearly up to the parents. If the pupils are vaccinated, we are happy about it, and the rest is tested without any problems,” explains von Berg.

A mask requirement remains for everyone – the NRW school ministry emphasized this again at the end of last week. Everyone inside and in class must wear mouth and nose protection. The mask can only be removed outdoors and during sports lessons.

New quarantine regulation

However, there was a change in the quarantine regulation. With the start of school, in the event of a positive Corona case, the entire school class no longer has to be in quarantine, but only the students who are sitting in the immediate vicinity, “that is, right and left, in front of and behind”. In addition, because of the close contact, the teaching staff must also be in quarantine, said NRW School Minister Yvonne Gebauer, FDP. This decision was made in close coordination with the NRW Ministry of Health and the Robert Koch Institute, she emphasized. Completely vaccinated seat neighbors are generally excluded from the 14-day quarantine if they are without symptoms, explained Gebauer.

For the secondary school in Eschweiler, however, the biggest challenge is no longer Corona, but also coping with the flood situation in addition to the pandemic. “It is an absolutely strange situation, especially for the final graders,” explains headmistress Silbernagel. Last year they had already had a difficult school year due to Corona and would now have to complete their secondary school diploma under completely new conditions. Because the fact that they no longer come to school on foot but by bus means less sleep, more effort and additional stress. It is not yet possible to see how this will affect us.