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In many schools, the new year begins the way it ended: with missed lessons, in the best case with children staring at screens.

Homeschooling is intended to replace face-to-face teaching and "roughly correspond to the teaching time", according to the plans for Berlin high schools, for example.

However, one thing is clear: no matter how good the lessons at home and the emergency plans may be, they cannot completely replace regular lessons.

Thousands of students are threatened with a kind of high school diploma or a medium-level educational qualification - with the corresponding consequences for their professional careers.

"It is to be expected that neither the completely planned subject matter nor the competencies to be conveyed can be conveyed in full," said the federal chairman of the Education and Training Association, Udo Beckmann, WELT.

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The 2020/21 school year will not take place under normal conditions at any time in the foreseeable future.

"Also in this school year it must be true that the special situation in this school year must not result in any disadvantages for pupils."

When and how the schools will reopen remains unclear

Schools will likely remain closed for a while in the corona pandemic.

And even if the numbers allow an opening again, it is unclear what exactly this should look like.

There is currently no uniform plan.

Source: WELT / Philipp Reichelt

Heinz-Peter Meidinger, President of the German Teachers' Association, points out that the current graduates are affected twice.

“You still have to catch up on material from the last lockdown, and more gaps are currently emerging.” In some federal states there are already instructions to schools as to which learning material can be dispensed with.

"Of course you will not be able to query exam material that has not been taught," said Meidinger.

"Many schools are not equipped for it"

Education economists are already sounding the alarm.

Because of the failures in spring, it will hardly be possible to teach the same amount of material in schools as in previous years.

School closings due to pandemics exacerbated the problem, warned the head of the Ifo Center for Educational Economics, Ludger Wößmann.

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"Many pupils will therefore leave the schools with a lower level of competence than previous years," said Wößmann WELT.

"The school administrators had ten months to prepare for the renewed increase in the corona numbers and the challenges that come with them, and to prepare for online lessons.

Some schools have done that, but I'm afraid many are not equipped for it. "

In view of the situation, the Federal Schoolchildren's Conference has already demanded compensation for disadvantages.

"We are finding more and more that the lesson material falls by the wayside due to the cancellation of lessons, but also due to quarantine measures," says Dario Schramm, General Secretary of the Federal Schoolchildren Conference.

The Abitur preparation is always a feat of strength, this year the preparation is almost impossible.

“We definitely need to compensate for the disadvantages,” demanded Schramm.

"This can lie in the adjustment of times, but also in the shortening of content."

In principle, the lockdown for the schools should last until the end of January.

However, the consensus in the federal-state negotiations is that primary schools and the final classes should return to schools with priority.

"We want to extend the lockdown until the end of January, but from January 11th we want to bring the final classes back to attendance, in order to enable the best possible final preparation under pandemic conditions like last year," announced

Thuringia's

Minister of Education Helmut Holter (Linke ) at.

Saxony wants to bring the Abitur classes back to schools from January 18.

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And the ministers of education and training also respond to the demands of the education experts - at least in part.

“It is very important to me that the pupils in the final classes can prepare for their degrees in a targeted manner.

This requires flexible solutions.

That is why we set priorities in the curriculum early on and gained time by postponing dates, ”says

Bavaria's

Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs Michael Piazolo (Free Voters).

In

Baden-Württemberg

, one of the things they are counting on is more preparation time: "We have postponed the exams in good time so that the students have more time to prepare," said Education Minister Susanne Eisenmann (CDU) WELT.

“We will also give teachers more tasks to pre-select.

In this way you can ensure that the topics that could be dealt with in detail in face-to-face classes are checked. "

Other federal states are also following this path.

North Rhine-Westphalia is

postponing the Abitur exams by nine days this year so that the students can prepare for their graduation during this time.

"In addition, there will be more and more suitable tasks in many subjects, the tasks of which take account of the special framework conditions," says the NRW Ministry of Education.

Thuringia's Minister of Education, Holter, announced to WELT: “At the beginning of the second half of the school year, I will present a plan for the exams in the 2020/21 school year.

They should be recognized nationally and internationally - that goes without saying. "

"University requirements do not decrease"

But: Are these measures enough to prevent a secondary school diploma?

If you believe experts, further steps are necessary so that the students can get fair, full-fledged degrees that can withstand comparison with other years, even in Corona times.

"The exams have to be adapted, both in terms of format and content," demanded Ilka Hoffmann, head of the school department at the Education and Science Union (GEW).

However, this does not mean any loss of quality, she told WELT.

"In distance teaching, learning was not generally less, but differently."

Nevertheless, there is a fear that at the end of the course material will be deleted and the degree will be devalued.

The chairman of the German Association of Philologists, Susanne Linn-Klitzing, warned against watering down the exams.

“High school graduates need a full high school diploma.

The demands of universities and training institutions on our current high school graduates will not decrease due to Corona, ”she warned.

However, teachers would need a lot more flexibility in the choice of exam topics.

The Federal Parents' Council also calls for the requirements of the final examinations not to be reduced, but for the selection options for the tasks to be expanded.

"On the one hand, this takes into account the lessons actually given and at the same time ensures the quality of education," said the deputy chairwoman of the Federal Parents' Council, Sabrina Wetzel.

"Otherwise this year will go down in history with the stigma of the Corona year."