Increased hygiene measures due to Corona in Berlin: students need to know that

Updated: 10/23/2020, 6:00 am
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The dynamism of the corona infection process has now also overwhelmed the Senate Department for Education. Late on Wednesday, Education Senator Sandra Scheeres (SPD) managed to introduce mandatory mouth and nose protection for high school and vocational school students and their teachers in the first week of school after the holidays. In the Corona step-by-step plan for Berlin schools, this corresponds to the yellow level measure. All other schools – whether primary schools, community schools or secondary schools without upper level – would have remained unaffected by this step.

But by late Thursday morning it was clear that this measure would not be enough for some districts. “Today we spoke to the school inspectorate again and assessed the significant increase in new infections over the past few days,” announced School and Health City Councilor Oliver Schworck (SPD). “We will therefore start with all schools in Tempelhof-Schöneberg in the yellow level.”

Also read the comment: Coronavirus in Berlin: Listen to the schools!

After the first district picks up, the Senate Department for Education also reacts

That had consequences. A few hours later it suddenly said from the Senate Department for Education: All schools in Berlin will start on the yellow level on Monday. “Even if schools are not particularly foci of infection according to the current state of science, I consider additional precautionary measures necessary in view of the current development at school start after the holidays,” said Senator for Education Scheeres.

The yellow level only applies to all schools in the first week of school – from Thursday onwards, the district health department and the responsible school inspectorate will individually reassess and colorize each school – depending on the infection rate in the district and in the school itself.

School principals like Tillmann Kötterheinrich-Wedekind, who heads the Ernst-Abbe-Gymnasium and sits on the board of the Berlin School Management Association, find this general, Berlin-wide classification of all schools in yellow questionable. “In view of the pandemic in Neukölln, I consider a different classification to be correct,” he says – at least orange, but more red.

All the news about the coronavirus in Berlin, Germany and the world: We have compiled the most important questions and answers about the coronavirus in Berlin for you here. In our news blog we report on the current corona developments in Berlin and Brandenburg. You can read the Germany-wide and international coronavirus news here. Corona hotspots: The 7-day incidence is above the critical value of 50 in several districts and for all of Berlin. Here you can find out the current values ​​of the RKI and the Senate Health Administration every day. You can get an overview of all corona risk areas in Germany here. These rules apply to corona hotspots in Germany. We also show in one interactive map of how the coronavirus is in Berlin, Germany, Europe and the world spreads.

Returning travelers could be a problem

At Orange, all students and teachers wore masks in class, at Red you could divide the school into A and B groups and offer a mixture of face-to-face and digital distance learning. Kötterheinrich-Wedekind knows what he is talking about: Even before the holidays, there was an increasing number of corona infections at his school, so that there was a brief switch to digital lessons. The situation in Neukölln has not improved since then, on the contrary. He also expects some of the schoolchildren to return home.

These school principals, who are calling for stricter measures at the beginning of school, are supported by the Education and Science Union (GEW). There they criticize the senator’s measures to classify all schools in yellow as too weak. “It is better to switch to the mix of face-to-face and distance learning now than to have to close schools completely again later,” says Tom Erdmann, Chairman of the Berlin GEW.

In the autumn schools they want to catch up on learning delays

On the other hand, the balance sheet drawn by the Senate Department for Education on the summer and autumn schools is positive. The State Secretary for Education Beate Stoffers (SPD) visited the Upper School Body Care Center (OSZ) in Charlottenburg on Thursday to get an idea of ​​a group of schoolchildren who took part in the additional funding this fall. “It’s about catching up on learning backlogs that arose during the corona pandemic school closure,” says Stoffers. Between March 16 and April 27, the OSZ were also without classroom teaching. A particular problem for many students who grow up in socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

7500 schoolchildren are taking part in this autumn break, 1000 of them from vocational schools. In the summer schools there were already 10,000 students. “98 percent of them were satisfied afterwards,” emphasizes Stoffers.

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