At the beginning of the Corona crisis, including the first lockdown, children, their rights and, above all, education were not a priority. Hardly a topic at first. That has changed. While the Chancellor wanted to close all schools at lockdown number 2 from November 2nd, at least kindergartens, elementary schools and lower grades are open. Education specialists wanted the same for the upper grades.
Children and young people themselves rarely had their say. In mid-May, Vienna’s mayor and the Education City Council invited the young and youngest citizens to their own online question and answer session, two weeks later the Minister of Health did the same. The Kinder-KURIER repeatedly published reports from and interviews with schoolchildren – links at the end of the article.
study
In the first lockdown, the Center for Social Innovation (ZSI) started a study on “Learning in a State of Emergency”, for which children and young people were also interviewed from the start: 503 pupils from 617 families were interviewed. The investigation was not limited to the phase of school closings, but was continued after the partial opening (half of the classes were allowed to alternately return to the classrooms) and over the holidays.
On the one hand, questions were asked about the effects of home schooling and distance learning, but also what lessons there could be for “normal” everyday school life. The results of the study were presented in the wienXtra-Kinderinfo shortly before Lockdown2 – by scientists and five schoolchildren. The numbers below in a separate article, here the five children and young people should have their say.
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