GEW Offenbach calls for greater distance in primary schools

• fromAgnes Schoenberger

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The GEW in Offenbach reports great uncertainty at primary schools because distances cannot be maintained. It’s time to cut the classes in half.

The Education and Science Union (GEW) Offenbach calls for the classes at the primary schools to be halved so that the necessary intervals can be maintained. In an open letter, Edeltraud Trinowitz from the GEW Offenbach criticized that strict contact restrictions would apply everywhere, but that up to 25 children in primary school classes were still sitting in narrow classrooms.

According to her, the Offenbach Health Department only allows breakfast breaks in classrooms if the distance of one and a half meters can be maintained. In reality, however, that is not possible, writes the teacher, who teaches at the Wilhelmschule in Offenbach, in the letter to the health authorities in the city and district, among others. The GEW representative is surprised at the order because it is claimed that the risk of infection in primary schools is low.

There is now great uncertainty among colleagues. They are afraid for the health of their students: inside and also for their own, she says, referring to the recent corona outbreak at a Saxon primary school. There, the virus was detected in half of the children and teachers.

Trinowitz considers it grossly negligent that classes and teachers affected by infections are no longer quarantined. It is known that the chains of infection in Offenbach can no longer be traced. “Then how can you say that there is hardly any mutual infection in schools?” She asks.

City spokesman Fabian El Cheikh said on request that no transmissions had been detected within the classes at Offenbach’s schools. As far as can be determined, the virus was carried into the school community from “outside”. He pointed out that, unlike other municipalities, the city had also introduced compulsory masks in primary school, precisely because it was known that young children were less likely to adhere to the rules of distance. The city will also order ventilation devices. This was also a requirement of the GEW.

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