Education has not played a role in the previous federal election campaign.

Amazing, because the schools were the subject of daily reports during the pandemic.

For a brief moment, the situation of children and young people from poorly educated families also became the focus of public interest.

It was impressively shown how they were affected by the school closings and how the educational gap between these children and the educationally-related children who were able to compensate for the lessons at home with the help of their parents continued to widen.

Many spoke of a burning glass, because these problems existed before Corona.

Since PISA at the latest, it has been proven that uneducated parents and their children regularly fail because of a school system that relies heavily on support from home - the misleading term "homeschooling", which actually means teaching under the direction of the parents, which is not permitted in Germany , is as telling as it is revealing.

The federal government has put together a catch-up package with a lot of money, which will offer many additional opportunities until the end of 2022, but in the long term is nothing more than a consolation.

Communication across milieu needs to be learned

Real efforts for greater educational equality would be much more important. That should be the real conclusion from the last two years. The schools in particular, in which the emergency situations of a district are directly reflected and which are therefore often referred to as focus schools, lack the essentials. It's not burning here because the schools are bad, exactly the opposite is the case, but because there is a lack of teachers, educators, social workers, the right equipment and educational freedom. This is where politics must finally start.

Most of all, there is a lack of qualified educators. This is especially the case in schools that try under the most difficult conditions to provide their students with a qualification and at least the qualification for training. For many, they seem too unattractive as a place to work. So far, there are hardly any attractive offers for high school graduates to apply for teaching at socially difficult schools. All of the image campaigns were of no use.

Agreements are needed for the training of teachers, for example, in which the countries pull together instead of competing with one another. Candidate teachers have to be prepared for their employment in hotspot schools and have to be accompanied continuously. The mentors at the schools often do not have enough capacity for this. As important as professionalism in connection with specialized didactics remains, these schools are primarily about building relationships, about personal contact with the students and the parents. Communication across milieu needs to be learned. And professional school administrators are required who are able to run the school and, together with their colleagues, to develop it into attractive learning locations. What is really frightening is that politics has been failing for years because of such basic demands.

Clamped municipal coffers

The situation is similar with the equipment, which is far too often inadequate in schools in the economic hotspot.

The responsibility of the school authorities at this point not only complicates a lot, but also reinforces this effect.

Because of tight budgets in the municipalities, it is often not even enough for rooms that enable differentiated schooling, proper gyms, rooms for music and art classes.

This requires teaching and learning material, digital equipment, WiFi and clean toilets.

All of this should go without saying, but it is not.