Hessen's schools are also facing challenges in the next school year that will "demand" students, teachers and parents "intensively".

This is what Hesse's Minister of Education, Alexander Lorz, writes in a letter to his parents.

The CDU politician means in particular the refugee movements triggered by the war in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Lorz believes that Hessen is well prepared for the next school year.

Since the pandemic has still not been overcome, the minister announced that the first two weeks of school after the holidays should again be so-called prevention weeks.

During this time, every student will receive three antigen self-tests per week, which they can use to test themselves at home.

Even after the prevention weeks, two tests per week are made available for each student.

According to Lorz, there will be no mask requirement at school in the autumn as things stand at present because there is no legal basis for this in the Federal Infection Protection Act.

If there is an infection in a class, he recommends wearing a protective mask voluntarily.

According to the minister, around eleven million antigen self-tests have been issued to Hesse's students, teachers and school staff since May of this year.

Hesse's students have already been allowed to take five self-tests home with them in the past few days so that they can voluntarily check themselves for a possible corona infection before the new school year in the last days of the summer holidays and on the first day of school.

When asked on Friday, the Ministry of Education was unable to say how many students would attend schools in Hesse in the next school year; these figures were not yet available, it said.

They are to be announced at the traditional school start press conference on September 2nd.

According to the ministry, the question of whether and how many teachers will be missing in the next school year has not yet been finally decided, because the vacancies are still being filled.

In principle, however, the need for primary and special schools is the highest, said a ministry spokesman.

Hundreds of teachers have to register as unemployed

The SPD parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament has sharply criticized Lorz for the fact that hundreds of teachers had to register as unemployed during the summer holidays because the state government designed their contracts in such a way that they did not have to pay the teachers during the holidays.

"It is dishonest and undignified not to pay people during company vacation time," complained SPD education politician Nina Heidt-Sommer, adding: "Such a practice is prohibited under labor law in all companies.

If there is a shortage of skilled workers, I have to treat my skilled workers well to keep them.

The state of Hesse does not act according to this principle.”

Although Heidt-Sommer admitted that this procedure was also used in other federal states, he pointed out that the extent in Hesse was greater.

She referred to information from Lorz, according to which around 1,300 to 1,900 teachers are affected by this regulation every year.

The practice is justified by the fact that the country saves around 7.7 million euros a year in this way.

In the meantime, the long holidays in Hesse began on Friday.

However, not all students will have continuous free time: Many young people from Hessen will study voluntarily in the next few weeks in order to catch up on the backlog caused by the Corona measures.

According to the Minister of Education, around 15,000 schoolchildren are expected to use the voluntary Löwenstark learning programs during the summer holidays.

Swimming, learning German, arithmetic

As in the Easter holidays, learning camps will be offered again, in which missed lessons can be made up for.

Individual support in the core subjects takes place on at least three days.

In cooperation with the DLRG and the Hessian swimming association, the state also offers free swimming courses.

There will also be swimming vouchers worth 75 euros until the end of the holiday, which will be given to students in need.

As part of the “German Summer – Holidays that make you smart” program, third-graders receive special language support as a holiday offer, and elementary school students can catch up on learning deficits in reading, writing and arithmetic on the “Ferdi II” online platform.

Actually, Hessen's schools should have used a new, uniform and data protection-compliant system for video conferences at the beginning of the new school year.

The Ministry of Education had issued this goal at the end of last year.

A new call for tenders for the conference software had become necessary after the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court had rejected the award procedure.

However, nothing will probably come of this at the beginning of the school year, because "the renewed call for applications is still ongoing", as the ministry put it.