Minister, how many of the more than 1,400 publicly owned schools in Saxony are completely closed, and how many are partially?

Heike Schmoll

Political correspondent in Berlin, responsible for the “educational worlds”.

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One or more classes were sent home in 230 schools.

41 schools are currently completely closed.

Schools are usually closed for a week to a maximum of 14 days.

Who decides to close the school, the Ministry of Education or the Health Department?

The Ministry of Culture does this in close consultation with the school administrators, who are very happy about it because the health authorities are so overloaded that it is usually not even possible to get in touch with them.

Is there emergency care, especially for primary school children, in the event of closure?

We have limited the emergency care to a small group of the really systemically relevant professions, because expanding the emergency care would run counter to the actual purpose of combating infection.

The incidence in children and adolescents is significantly higher than in the rest of the population.

Are the numbers still rising?

No, the numbers have been falling in the last few days, which means that our instruments are working, so I am cautiously optimistic. Due to our serial testing three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), more infected people are of course noticed. After holidays and weekends, there is regularly an increased incidence of infections. That's why I'm not a fan of extended Christmas holidays, because it deprives us of the opportunity to test the children on a regular basis. From an infectious point of view, I see a much higher risk than in regular school operations. The Saxon studies on daycare centers and schools have repeatedly shown that the majority of infections take place in the home or in the leisure sector.

Last week, the prime ministers decided that masks should be compulsory for all grades, something that virologists have been demanding since the summer. Why did you restrict the mask requirement in Saxony to older pupils from the fifth grade and, given the exceptionally high incidences in your country, you did not decide on your own initiative, even though it is a mild remedy?

We always have to ask ourselves what that does to the children.

Since we in Saxony always have to look at elementary school and after-school care center together due to the high childcare rates, we would impose on children to wear masks almost continuously from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and I think that is rather problematic at that age.

We decided to switch to restricted regular operation instead in view of the high incidences.

This means that we strictly separate the groups in the primary school and daycare areas.

We are also temporarily closing schools to contain the infections.

This means that home study time takes place with learning platforms or worksheets.

Do you have an overview of the learning gaps and deficits caused by the school closings in the spring of this year?

We asked the schools to concentrate on the individual learning status surveys until the autumn break and to support them accordingly.

Do you know the number of teachers who have not been vaccinated?

Finally, given the 3-G rule in the workplace, there are teachers who complain about having to get tested every day.

This week we want to get an overview of the vaccination status.

The rate among teachers is likely to be higher than in the general population, but lower than the vaccination rate in other federal states.

Also within Saxony there will be big differences between the Vogtland with its high vaccination rate and the Erzgebirge and Bautzen with a particularly low vaccination status.

We only have approximate values ​​because there is no mandatory query in the teaching staff.

They have sent mobile vaccination teams to schools to give 14,000 schoolchildren aged 11 and over who are willing to vaccinate the opportunity to be vaccinated on site.

Opponents of the vaccination abused the adolescents so badly that in the end not even half of them actually got vaccinated.

How did you react to that?