education
Around 1200 mobile air filter devices planned for schools
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Rising corona numbers are making regular lessons increasingly difficult – too many teachers and educators are in quarantine.
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Windows cannot be left open everywhere – that’s why the Senate Department for Education purchases air filter devices.
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Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
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Berlin’s schools receive around 1200 mobile air purification devices. The Senate decided on Tuesday. 4.5 million euros will be made available for this equipment, which is intended to help prevent the spread of the corona virus in some classrooms. “The acquisition of air purification devices is one of numerous measures to significantly limit the incidence of infection,” said Education Senator Sandra Scheeres (SPD), whose house had drafted the draft for the resolution.
There should be a device where it is difficult to ventilate
But Berlin has more than 800 schools, who should get one or more air purification devices in the end? A “funding guideline for allocation” is in progress and: “Priority is given to schools and rooms where ventilation is difficult,” says a spokesman for the education administration. The devices should be procured “promptly”.
There is no concern that the air filter market may be swept dry. There is no shortage of “high quality equipment”. On the other hand, no air filters have been provided for daycare centers, according to Scheeres. For them, so far, only money for CO2-Measuring devices planned to optimize ventilation.
The opposition welcomed the purchase of the devices – but criticized the insufficient number. “Today’s Senate resolution provides for a number of just 1200 and is therefore insufficient,” said the education policy spokesman for the Berlin CDU parliamentary group, Dirk Stettner. And the FDP parliamentary group pointed out that they had already submitted an application for Hepa air filters for all schools in the last parliamentary session. Because they contribute to the fact that regular lessons at the schools “can be maintained”, so the FDP MP Paul Fresdorf, who is responsible for education policy.
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At a primary school in Kreuzberg, 20 percent of the teachers are currently missing
However, the increasing numbers, especially of teachers and educators who have to be in quarantine or may even be infected, are increasingly becoming a problem for regular school operations. This is shown by an email from a school administration from Kreuzberg to the parents.
“Since yesterday, unfortunately, the events are overturning again,” it says there. “There are a number of children who have had contact with infected people and therefore now have to be in quarantine.” 60 children, nine teachers and five primary school teachers are now in quarantine. For the school, this means that 20 percent of the teachers and 15 percent of the educators are currently unable to work on site.
“That is a big problem,” confirms Astrid-Sabine Busse from the interest group of the Berlin school administrators and herself headmaster at the school in the Köllnische Heide. Also because you have to be careful with the substitute hours – the cohort system provides that only a limited number of teachers and educators work in a class. Nevertheless, it is important to maintain the regular instruction on site as well as possible. “Even a few hours are better than nothing,” said Busse. You have to look for individual solutions.
Staggered start of school is not a problem for the education administration
The Association of German Transport Companies recently called for a staggered start of school in order to prevent a dense crowd of schoolchildren in the morning on buses, underground and suburban trains and trams in Corona times. No problem, according to the Senate Department for Education. “The schools can independently decide whether to start school later,” says a spokesman for the education administration. “Some schools also start later.”
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