HERE. The colleges are seething. "Perennial omissions, misjudgments, misjudgments of the situation, inadequate or wrong measures and sometimes (deliberate?) misinformation from the public ensure a loss of trust, chaos and insecurities in the local schools," says a statement by the GEW in Herne, Westphalia, on politics by NRW School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP), who is likely to be an example of the explosive atmosphere in many places. What is special: the teachers' union members are now even demanding Gebauer's resignation - an unprecedented step.
In an eight-page dossier, GEW Herne lists the state of research and the measures taken by the Ministry of Education (Ministry for Schools and Education, MSB) under Gebauer. "The corona measures taken by the MSB at the respective times over the last 2 years were consistently and repeatedly dramatically insufficient and at least fatally too late in terms of infection protection," it says. "Since October 2020, several national studies have been available that show that schools were part of the infection process at all times of the pandemic, while the minister repeatedly classified the schools as 'safe places'."
"Studies on the effectiveness of MNS in public spaces have been available since December 2020, while the minister not only abolished the obligation to wear masks in all schools, but also prohibited individual schools and municipalities from independently applying MNS protection depending on the situation on site and according to the will of everyone involved decide on. Scientific studies were already available in December 2020 that documented superspreader events in schools; this data was ignored. Contrary to the actual test results, it was claimed on the contrary that the infection events had taken place outside of the schools and that the KMK repeatedly referred to these incorrectly received basics in its order justifications.
“Schools were and are places that drove and are driving the incidence numbers up by a dramatically high factor”
Most recently, the authors explain, the MSB's instructions at the beginning of classes after the 2021/22 Christmas holidays and the situation, especially in public transport, on the first day of school and the first day of school that was actually not tested by the elementary school students led to the number of cases falling below Children and young people with omicrons had to go upstairs explosively in schools. With regard to the rapid tests newly procured by the state for secondary schools, it is said that "with a sensitivity of only 58 or 62%, they detect infections significantly worse than the previous test with a sensitivity of 76%".
The next low point led: the test chaos. "Today (January 25, ed.) the laboratory responsible for Herne - like numerous other laboratories throughout North Rhine-Westphalia - informed the schools that due to the high number of positive tests in the primary and special school pools, individual re-tests will no longer be carried out can - the number of positive pools is over 20%. This means that from now on, the primary schools will be informed about one day after the tests have been taken that one or more children in a class are infected, but it will no longer be determined which child or children these are."
The GEW had warned that if all elementary school children who were in fact untested sat together on the first day after the Christmas holidays, the omicron variant would enter the schools and that the virus would inevitably “hit the elementary schools like an ax in soft butter” as a result. This is exactly what happened. “The consequences in the coming period will be that the numbers of infected children and teachers and, as a result, the incidences in society as a whole will continue to explode. Schools will either have to carry out very uncertain 'self-tests', especially with small children, or they will no longer be able to carry out tests at all. The everyday dramatic chaos that has already set in will continue to expand, especially if the number of infections among teachers also continues to rise. It is to be expected that the fatally incorrect requirements of the MSB (...) will mean that schools will have to close completely, that compulsory attendance in schools will have to be suspended (and thus leave this dilemma decision to the parents) - or that simply will continue to be taught in person, no matter what the infection situation is.”
Overall, the GEW Herne sees direct connections between massively wrong or insufficient assessments by Gebauer and direct consequences in the course of infection. “Schools were not and are not safe places, as the minister repeatedly stated publicly, they were and are places that drove and are driving the incidence figures up dramatically. Since the numbers of the most severe course of the disease and also the consequences of death are a direct consequence of the number of infections, the inadequate fatal assessments described above and the resulting requirements for schools are to be held responsible for some of the infections and ultimately also for some of the victims.
Another point: The basic school orientation of Gebauer's work was designed one-sidedly on "lesson material and exams": "While at the beginning of the pandemic the goal of 'passing' exams was the core of the MSB measures and also protecting the mental integrity of children and young people were hardly the focus at all (an overwhelming part of the instructions from the first 28 school emails relates to the implementation of examinations and the requirements for this for the final classes), the MSB and the minister now appeal to the set premise of the face-to-face teaching specifically on the argument of the mental health of the children - in fact, however, fatally inadequate measures are being taken."
Sadness, bewilderment, desperation, anger - and doubts about the skills at the highest management level
Most of the measures followed the heading "Catching up after Corona" under titles like "Now we turn on the turbo" - and continued to focus on catching up on technical content, while emergency support for traumatized children and adolescents or for depression, loneliness, addiction , aggression or other problem tendencies, there are waiting times in counseling centers and clinics of many months to more than a year.
“According to the feedback from the colleges, the responsible clinics have limited acute help completely to situations of self-harm. Even when there is a risk to others, there are long waiting times due to the unbelievable abundance of needy 'cases'. Relevant measures with a focus on what children and young people now need for their well-being, their identity formation, their human development, the development of values and norms are still not or hardly in the instructions of the MSB for schools, but in any case completely insufficient on the agenda.”
The GEW Herne repeatedly received feedback from the colleges as well as from parents and students, "which shows how great the sadness, the bewilderment, the desperation, the anger or the doubts about the competences at the highest management level are now. For the GEW Herne, Minister Gebauer bears the main responsibility.” The school minister should resign – “in the deep and best interests of all those affected by school”. Because: "In our perception, the majority of teachers, parents and students do not (or no longer) trust in her and in future meaningful decisions for which she is responsible." News4teachers / with material from the dpa
