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Berlin (dpa) - The education ministers of the federal states want to work to ensure that schools in Germany remain open for as long as possible despite rising corona numbers.
In this context, teachers in face-to-face classes should also be given priority in the vaccination campaign, the ministers called on Friday after discussions in the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs.
Primary school teachers are now given priority vaccination, but secondary school teachers still have to wait.
Education unions criticized the ministers' decision.
"We are fighting for classroom schooling for schoolchildren every day," said the Brandenburg Education Minister and President of the KMK, Britta Ernst (SPD), at a press conference on Friday.
In an interview with “Bayerischer Rundfunk” she later added: You do “something” to children when schools are closed for months.
The statement by the ministers of education is not to keep schools open at all costs.
"But what is not possible is that other areas of society are kept open, such as
hardware stores, and schools are closed."
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Since February, most elementary schools in Germany have been teaching again.
Most recently, depending on the federal state, older cohorts had returned, at least in alternation.
Regionally, schools have already been closed again due to rising corona numbers.
The subject is sometimes bitterly disputed, for example in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the state government had again collected decisions from local authorities on planned closings.
Compared to all other areas of life, schools have to stay open the longest, according to the KMK decision.
"In this context, the ministers of education emphasize that children and young people should not be stigmatized as a danger for everyone involved in the school."
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach said on Friday that the increasingly dominant British virus variant is spreading particularly widely through schoolchildren and children.
"There is no age group where the increase in cases is currently as pronounced as it is among children and young adults."
Lauterbach demanded that the development of the test strategy in schools should have the highest priority.
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The ministers of education also consider tests for pupils and teachers important.
Against this background, however, they also demand an examination of whether the so-called incidence figure - i.e. the number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants within the past 7 days - should continue to be decisive in decisions about school closings.
The reason: If children and adolescents are now massively tested everywhere, more cases will automatically be found - and this will also increase the incidence values.
KMK President Ernst sees progress in vaccinating teachers.
She assumes that a “very high group” of primary school teachers has already been vaccinated.
Also because the quota of the vaccinated population and the educational staff are increasing, the incidence value must be viewed differently, she said.
Education unions expressed themselves critically on Friday: "If the education ministers want to open the schools further, they must do everything to ensure that they become corona-free places," demanded Susanne Lin-Klitzing, chairwoman of the German Association of Philologists, which represents high school teachers.
"We need vaccination offers for all teachers, a clever test strategy and the necessary prerequisites for this, namely sufficient self-tests and rapid tests."
How well it has worked with tests by students and teachers so far varies greatly from region to region.
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The Association of Education and Upbringing (VBE), which claims to represent more than 160,000 educators as a union, also criticized the lack of infection protection in schools.
Looking at the numbers published by the Robert Koch Institute a few days ago, which had shown a sharp increase in the number of infections detected in children, Udo Beckmann, head of the association, said the KMK should not shut itself off from school closings in areas with very high incidences.
"We need a clear definition of an emergency brake for the school sector."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210319-99-891309 / 3
Decision of the KMK