The minister emphasized: “The essential thing is that the school is open, it not only provides care, but also provides instruction,” emphasized the minister. Operation is secured by a continuous mask requirement (mouth and nose protection for young people, FFP2 mask for senior classes and teachers) and tests three times a week for everyone. At the same time, the classes can be detached – those parents who can work from home can leave their children at home if they want to. “
If an entire class stays at home, distance learning is possible, according to Faßmann. In addition, synchronous hybrid lessons can also take place, provided the technical possibilities are available; otherwise, students who stayed at home would receive learning packages and assignments, which they then submit via the learning platform of the respective school.
It is true that there is a requirement for schoolwork and tests not to allow them to take place during the lockdown phase. But if, for example, practically all students are present or they cannot be postponed, they could be carried out. “But you can also omit it completely if a reliable performance assessment is otherwise possible.” However, one wants to avoid that all schoolwork and tests have to take place in January. Faßmann added that at the press conference on Friday afternoon. When teaching new subject matter, teachers should proceed with a sense of proportion. “The next three weeks are not the time to push the curriculum up to speed”.
Education Minister Faßmann did not want to give any advice on whether their parents should send their children to school or leave them at home. The parents would know best – one should at least consider regional circumstances such as the infection rate at the place of residence and the child’s learning type. The minister did not want to make a prognosis about the use of the lessons. In the course of the lockdowns in recent years, it became clear that this differed from school type to school type and from school to school. With increasing duration, more and more came to school.
There will be no requirements from the ministry for the universities. These are completely autonomous. Most of the time, however, they would switch to distance learning, where this was feasible, and on the other hand they would try to offer laboratory activities and artistic lessons in person. For all those who take part in school operations, the mask requirement applies in the entire school building. Mouth and nose protection is required for primary and secondary level 1 – i.e. in elementary schools, lower secondary schools, middle schools and special schools. An FFP2 mask is mandatory in all areas for teaching and administrative staff.
