Currently justifiable: Court: No general entitlement to distance learning due to Corona

According to a recent ruling, students are not entitled to distance learning because of a general health risk from the corona pandemic. Such a claim only comes into question in the event of an individual health risk to the students themselves or their family members living in the household, said the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia (OVG) on Wednesday in Münster. It thus rejected the complaint of a high school student from the 8th grade against an urgent decision of the Düsseldorf Administrative Court (Az: 19 B 1458/21, 1st instance VG Düsseldorf 7 L 1811/21).

According to the information, the Düsseldorf student had asserted that his right to physical integrity had priority over the obligation to attend school in the current pandemic.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia also took “insufficient protective measures” against infection of schoolchildren with the corona virus.

The 19th Senate of the OVG did not follow this line of argument.

According to the requirements of the NRW Ministry of Education for the protection of relatives who have previously been ill, a release from face-to-face classes could be considered, but only in very limited exceptional cases and temporarily, according to the incontestable court order.

However, the student did not refer to such previous illnesses.

Decision is in line with human rights

In the pandemic situation, the legislature and the government would have to weigh up "in the tension between basic individual rights and compulsory schooling," argued the court. In doing so, the risk of infection and possible secondary diseases as well as health, psychological and social impairments through long-term distance learning would have to be assessed, whereby the country had a scope for decision-making.

In the opinion of the OVG, the decision to return to face-to-face teaching is sufficient for “the basic legal requirements with a view to the state's duty to protect students” and is also in line with human rights. At the moment, it is justifiable to stick to face-to-face lessons while observing the mask requirement, with access restrictions for community facilities, tests in schools and accompanying quarantine regulations.