Around 2.5 million schoolchildren in North Rhine-Westphalia will return to the classroom on Wednesday. The 2022/23 school year begins – the fourth under pandemic conditions.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – mask, self-tests, air filters, vaccinations – when classes start again for 2.5 million schoolchildren in North Rhine-Westphalia on Wednesday after the summer holidays, the debate about protective measures will pick up speed again. For the classroom, the NRW Ministry of Education recommends Dorothee Feller (CDU) to wear a mask voluntarily. Parents should receive rapid corona tests from schools so that their children can test themselves at home. On August 10th – or the following day for school enrollments – there is also a self-test option at school.
In addition to Corona, there are worries about the gas crisis, inflation and the ongoing problem of staff shortages, as Anke Staar from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parents’ Conference reported. Important measures such as the installation of ventilation systems have hardly been implemented. “Securing education is a state task. Suitable space and sufficient staff must be available for this.”
The Philologists’ Association of North Rhine-Westphalia believes it is fundamentally right to rely on schools taking on more personal responsibility. “Within the scope of the legal possibilities”, the country is well positioned, said association leader Sabine Mistler. If, in exceptional cases, face-to-face learning is not possible, comparable conditions are needed everywhere with digital equipment – and rapid expansion is now needed for this.
The NRW chairman of the educational association VBE, Stefan Behlau, believes: “In times when the train has to cancel entire S-Bahn lines without replacement due to numerous illnesses, it must be assumed that school operations will not be spared from disruptions.” Teachers need the “best possible support” from the federal, state and local authorities.
