Expert talk on education and Corona with Ralph Alexander Lorz

Debate in Neuss
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Expert talk on education and Corona

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Jörg Geerlings (left) and Ralph Alexander Lorz have known each other for a long time. The picture shows them at a meeting in 2016.
Photo: CDU

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Neuss Corona has shaken everyday school life. At the invitation of the Landtag member Jörg Geerlings (CDU), the Hessian Minister of Education Ralph Alexander Lorz discussed the consequences and lessons for the future with Neussers.

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How do you succeed in getting Germany, NRW and Neuss fit again after Corona? Jörg Geerlings (CDU), member of the state parliament from Neuss, has initiated a series of talks with experts on various focal points on this question. On Thursday there was a video link about education and school politics. Jörg Geerlings had asked the Hessian Minister of Education, Ralph Alexander Lorz, as a conversation partner. The guest knows Neuss very well, because the legal scholar was a full professor of international and European law at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf from 2000 to 2014, and has also been the dean of the law faculty since 2012. Since January 2014 he has been the Hessian Minister of Culture.

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Alexander Lorz was still in the car at the beginning of the conference because his daughter was driving, but he was able to follow the zoom right from the start and a short time later he was in his ministry on Luisenplatz in Wiesbaden. “In the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs we are very united across all party lines,” Alexander Lorz introduced in his lecture. But he reckons that “we will return to party-political disputes during the election campaign.” On Thursday evening, Alexander Lorz spoke in Neuss, and on Friday he lifted the mask requirement on the entire school premises in an order in Hesse. School corridors and classrooms were excluded until the respective space was taken. The evening before, the Hessian minister of education had announced in Neuss: “The pandemic has developed so well in the past few weeks and the incidences are currently so low that we can take responsibility for this measure.” To wear a mask if that corresponds to the personal sense of security. “And when the numbers go up, there is always the mask requirement again”, emphasized the minister. “But I believe that we will continue to have face-to-face lessons in view of the psychosocial consequences for the students.” Because: “School keeps children together.”

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In order to deal with learning delays, the state of Hesse, with the support of the federal government, makes all financial resources available to schools. “They can best judge where deficits need to be addressed,” the minister is convinced. Dirk Jansen, Chairman of the Neuss City Parents’ Council, opened the lively discussion. In addition to very personal experiences and worries, he reported very valuable support, in particular from District Director Dirk Bruges, and came to his favorite topic: “Air filters in all classrooms”. Alexander Lorz was just as skeptical as the Mayor of Neuss, Reiner Breuer, by the way. Firstly, there are no clear statements on the part of science, and secondly, because of the costs, full equipment is “almost impossible. We should not raise false expectations about this, ”added the minister.

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He was also shocked by comments from Elke Schlangen, the school policy spokeswoman for the CDU. The comprehensive school teacher reported considerable deficits in everyday school life, especially in distance teaching: “Quite a few teachers do not have a terminal device.” At the same time, she regretted that the school committee was only able to meet digitally: “That does not allow any decisions.”

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