Regardless of an epidemic situation of national scope determined by the German Bundestag, as stated in the Infection Protection Act, Paragraph 28a, Paragraph 7, the federal states can also set contact restrictions in the private as well as in the public sphere.
And the states can also issue requirements for schools and universities according to the same paragraph. In Berlin, for example, there is a “Corona step-by-step plan”: Depending on whether the virus is only rampant among individual students or in individual schools or across the board, there will be a switch in Berlin from regular operations, to alternate teaching or even distance teaching.
Step-by-step plans for schools – up to and including distance teaching
The regulations in other countries are similar or similar. Lower Saxony, for example, has a three-scenario plan, Hesse has come up with four stages. The other countries also reserve the right to gradually switch to distance learning depending on the infection situation.
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Given the progress made in vaccination among children and adolescents, it is likely that the step-by-step plans will come into effect at the beginning of 2022. According to the Robert Koch Institute, currently only about 52 percent of all twelve to 17 year olds are fully vaccinated. As long as the vaccination rate among children and adolescents remains so low, it is only a matter of time before the corona infections in schools increase.
No compulsory vaccination, no air filters and only voluntary training for teachers
Everywhere in German classrooms the only help is with masks, quick tests and ventilation. What did not happen after two years of the corona pandemic:
- Compulsory vaccination for teachers: In December, the Bundestag passed a limited compulsory vaccination for health workers, but not for school or daycare staff, as is the case with measles vaccination.
- Compulsory vaccination for students: Even after a certain age, students do not have to be vaccinated. Up to the age of majority, they are also dependent on the consent of their parents. The measles vaccination, on the other hand, already applies at daycare age.
- Air filters in the classrooms: Only Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin and Bavaria supposedly wanted to equip all classrooms with air filters. However, delivery and installation are still ongoing. At the end of November, the two large German teachers’ unions, GEW and VBE, criticized the fact that most schools still had no air filter systems. The two main reasons: a complicated funding process and the financial weakness of the municipalities, which have to shoulder around 20 percent of the investment themselves.
- Digital teaching: There is no compulsory further training for teachers in any federal state to finally be adequately equipped for digital lessons. However, many ministries of education have expanded their range of advanced training courses accordingly. With the common platform World the federal states have also created an uncomplicated way of exchanging digital teaching material. Ultimately, it depends on the personal commitment of the individual teacher how fit he is for digital distance teaching.
Even in the third year of the pandemic, Germany’s schools are not well equipped. Here it is primarily the responsibility of students, their parents and teachers to get vaccinated.
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