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A few days before the end of the Easter holidays, the delivery of the corona self-tests to schools in North Rhine-Westphalia will be delayed.
The start of deliveries will be postponed to Thursday and Friday.
This emerges from a decree published on Wednesday by the ministries for schools and municipalities to the school administrators.
The letter has been submitted to the German Press Agency.
Originally, the first around 1000 elementary and special schools should be supplied with self-tests on Wednesday.
On the following days, all other schools should have their turn, primarily the primary and special schools.
The reason for the postponement of the deliveries is an increased time requirement in the compilation of the contents of the shipment, according to the decree.
Deliveries to primary and secondary schools should now begin on Thursday.
All other schools should follow on Friday.
Should there be further delays in the logistics process, a delivery on Saturday cannot be ruled out.
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The Easter holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia end on Monday.
From then on, a test is compulsory for students.
Children and young people from all schools should test themselves twice a week.
NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) emphasized on Wednesday that schools could only be opened if “testing works everywhere”.
That is a condition for classroom teaching.
The opposition Greens meanwhile predict that there will be too few corona self-tests for the around 2.5 million schoolchildren in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The state government could no longer keep the promise to test all students twice a week in the second week after the Easter break from April 19, said the Green education politician Sigrid Beer.
With a total of around 2.5 million students in North Rhine-Westphalia across all types of school, around five million tests per week should be on-site, according to Beer.
The budget and finance committee of the state parliament released 15.7 million euros according to a submission dated March 16, for which 3.3 million self-tests could initially be procured.
1.8 million of these tests were distributed to schools before the Easter break and used for one-off self-tests.
The remaining 1.5 million tests are to form the basis for further tests after the Easter holidays.
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From April 19, further requirements are to be covered after an open tendering and awarding procedure.
Another urgency award is planned for the first week after the Easter holidays to bridge the gap.
It could "deliver more, larger amounts of self-tests," it said.
After Laschet's push for a “bridge lockdown”, the SPD opposition sees schools in a state of uncertainty.
Nobody could say what the proposal meant for the schools, said the SPD parliamentary group vice Jochen Ott.
However, pupils, parents and teachers wanted to know whether they could continue with alternate lessons after the holidays or whether distance lessons would be arranged again.
What effects the possible new plans would have on the examination operation is also unclear, said the SPD school expert.
The written Abitur exams should start on April 23rd.
Laschet had asked for a two to three week hard lockdown to bridge the time until many people were vaccinated against the corona virus.
School Minister Gebauer discussed with the associations on Wednesday how things should continue at the schools after the Easter break.
On Thursday, the education ministers of the federal states will also discuss how to proceed at the schools.