Classes at the Leif Eriksson Community School, LEG for short, in Kiel started again at the beginning of August.

When school started after the summer holidays, the following rules applied: Mouth and nose protection is compulsory in the building, and everyone at the school must be tested for Corona twice a week if they have not been vaccinated or have recovered.

This wasn't new to the students.

Another announcement by the school principal Dieter Ruser was new: “The school will be able to offer all pupils from the age of twelve a corona vaccination offer in August 2021.” And: “We also invite families and relatives to Vaccination. "

Peter-Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the section “Germany and the World”.

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On Thursday at nine o'clock the time had come: At LEG, all the students who had previously registered were vaccinated. According to Ruser, the interest in the mobile vaccination campaign had risen sharply this week after the Standing Vaccination Commission had recommended vaccination for adolescents between the ages of twelve and 17 on Monday. The headmaster had 130 registrations, with 650 students in grades five to ten. The teachers were left out during the vaccination: "The colleagues are all through," said Ruser beforehand.

The LEG vaccination was “barrier-free”, which means that parents and other family members could stop by spontaneously to be immunized against Corona. Among them were members of migrant families. The parents trusted the offer, said Ruser. The school is a place they know. Children under the age of 14 require the consent of a legal guardian. "Children between the ages of 14 and 17 can fill out and sign the documents themselves," said the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Education.

On Thursday, Schleswig-Holstein was the first federal state to use mobile vaccination teams to enable children from the age of twelve to receive corona immunization in schools.

The offer was initially limited to 24 schools, but is to be expanded to a total of 250 community schools and grammar schools, as the ministry announced.

For the time being, 10,500 girls and boys in Schleswig-Holstein had registered for vaccination in schools.

However, the number continues to rise.

More than a third of students aged twelve and over in the north have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus, which is the top value in Germany.

Education Minister: No pressure on students

"I am very satisfied," said Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) when she visited the vaccination campaign at the Leif Eriksson Community School.

No pressure is exerted, added Prien.

The professional association of paediatricians had previously warned against “peer pressure” in schools.

Families could be better advised individually in practices.

Headmaster Ruser also refused to accept this criticism.

There is no mandate to the teachers to have an opinion-forming effect.

You discussed with the students, weighed up the advantages and disadvantages with them, and informed you when you were asked, Ruser told the ARD's “Morgenmagazin”.

The decision would have to be made by students and families themselves.

The primary vaccinations at the schools last two weeks.

The second vaccinations follow every three weeks.