Schools – Münster – Classroom instruction: Constitutional Court rejects return – Education

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The North Rhine-Westphalian Constitutional Court rejected applications for a return to face-to-face teaching at primary schools on Friday. The applicants – four students from Düsseldorf, Cologne, Lage and Leopoldshöhe – claimed that the prohibition of face-to-face classes violated their fundamental rights. Her parents saw the right to education and school support violated. Distance learning is not a suitable form of teaching for primary school students. The restrictions could not be justified with the corona pandemic.

However, the urgent requests were unsuccessful. The Constitutional Court argued that the ban until February 14 was acceptable. However, the court gave the state government some information on the way.

The judges warned that the measures always had to “take sufficient account of the actual actual conditions in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia”. The goal must always be the greatest possible protection of fundamental rights. The imposition of specific restrictions requires all the more justification, the less clear it is to what extent the prohibited activity – in this case classroom teaching – really contributes to the spread of the virus. Another essential criterion is the duration of the restriction.

The applicants had previously failed with urgent proceedings at the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court in Münster.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210129-99-227757 / 2

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