Masks, open windows, digital lessons – the pandemic has changed everyday school life. The Grasberg SPD politician Elke Schnakenberg is therefore in favor of a voluntary additional school year for secondary school students. (Guido Kirchner / dpa)
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Grasberg. Due to the corona pandemic, the Lower Saxony SPD wants to propose a tenth school year for secondary school students and an eleventh school year for secondary school students. The Grasberg SPD representative Elke Schnakenberg also speaks out in favor. For more than 40 years she has taught secondary school and secondary school students and remains loyal to education in retirement, as chairwoman of the school and education committee in the local council and in two SPD working groups for education at regional and state levels.
There is currently a discussion about extending school time for secondary and secondary school students by one year. Elke Schnakenberg justified this offer with concern about the quality of the degrees. An additional school year could relieve the young people. She therefore wanted to make this recommendation in the working groups. The result of the internal party deliberations will then be presented to the Lower Saxony minister of education.
Without the blemish of staying seated
“Young people should have the right to attend school for an extra year without the stigma of staying seated,” says Schnakenberg, emphasizing that the extension should be voluntary. She is not alone in this. The President of the German Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, criticized automatic transfers or the general waiver of grades and staying seated in the corona pandemic in relation to the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” as a doctor of symptoms. Meidinger has been demanding for months that pupils with learning difficulties nationwide should be offered an offer to repeat the school year voluntarily. Just like the Grasberger Schnakenberg, he emphasizes that this year should not be counted as staying seated.
School closings, changing lessons, online lessons, extended holidays – the infection protection measures in the context of the corona pandemic are having a massive impact on everyday school life. The loss of lessons is high, says Schnakenberg. “The digital lessons cannot cope with that.” Children from educationally disadvantaged families in particular have difficulties. It is not enough to hand out tablets. “You also have to create access,” emphasizes Schnakenberg. In addition: “School is more than just imparting material.”
Elke Schnakenberg also includes professional orientation and internships from the seventh and eighth grade onwards, as well as their support by the teachers, group work, presentations to parents or work in the student companies. None of this is due to the pandemic and digital lessons cannot replace this, just as little as the lack of school sports, an experiment in chemistry or being together in a group. But these years should also have the chance to find out in peace which training they want to do.
Schnakenberg is also concerned about the availability of apprenticeships. It is questionable whether and how many trainees the companies are training this year. Against this background, it would be better if secondary school students could study for an extra year in order to get or improve their degrees. It is after all “precisely these young people who are falling behind more and more”.
Companies reluctant
Even without a pandemic, many secondary school students would be “parked in the BBS for a year” after school, after which they would disappear into “some kind of job” without proper education. Now she fears: “The socially disadvantaged will be left behind.” An additional school year, which is compulsory for everyone, would be even better, so Schnakenberg, even if she knows one of the possible counter-arguments: the lack of teachers.
Qualification advisor at the IHK Stade, Sonja Tiedemann, regrets that there are currently no internships. Little can be said about the situation on the training market. “Many drive with the handbrake on.” There are industries such as the catering or travel sector that are reluctant. Elsewhere, however, “trainees are desperately wanted”, for example in food retail. In order to bring companies and trainees together in the Elbe-Weser region, the Chamber of Commerce, employment agencies and job centers are jointly organizing an online trainee speed dating from March 22nd to 26th (information soon at www.stade.ihk24.de). Companies can register for it from February 8th, says Tiedemann. “Then we can say who is actually still looking for trainees.”
IHK and the employment agencies want to support young people in their search for a training position. The aim is that they continue to have every opportunity to orientate themselves. Because: “The chances are good for secondary school and secondary school students.” Only when everything has been exhausted should you think about another school year, says Sonja Tiedemann, and points out that no one knows what will happen with Corona. “If the school situation doesn’t change, what would you have gained from this one year?”
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