Over 9,000 parents, paediatricians, virologists and educators write a joint letter to the Federal Chancellor and the Prime Minister. They demand that classes can take place on site again at all schools.
Stuttgart – Because of the corona virus in Baden-Württemberg *, many schools in the state are still taking correspondence or alternating courses. Some students haven’t been to school since mid-December. After months of homeschooling, the motivation of the students is dramatic *. Thousands of parents, educators, doctors and virologists are alarmed by the situation. In an open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), the Prime Ministers of the federal states and the Bundestag, they demand that face-to-face teaching be made possible again everywhere.
On behalf of Baden-Württemberg, Zarah Abendschön-Sawall, head of the Family Initiative, handed over the letter with more than 9,000 signatures to Minister of Education Theresa Schopper. “Our core requirement is a presence in kindergartens and schools – regardless of the incidence,” Abendschön-Sawall told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten . At the moment, nationwide it is still the case that schools continue to use distance learning * with an incidence of more than 165. If an urban or rural district undercuts this value for five days in a row, there is a switch to alternate instruction. However, all types of schools do not return to face-to-face teaching until the incidence is below 50.
School closings in Baden-Württemberg: “Damage outweighs benefit of fighting pandemic”
Thousands of signatories of the petition are certain that the long school closings are causing damage to the children and young people. “We are convinced that the psychological and physical damage that the permanent restrictions have on the youngest outweighs the benefits in the course of fighting the pandemic,” emphasized the board member of the Families Initiative to the Stuttgarter Nachrichten. In addition to the school opening, the petition makes further demands: “We want outdoor sports for children and young people to be possible without restrictions.”
Your project justifies the initiative, to which almost 800 scientists and experts are committed, with the fact that the number of infections related to the corona virus in Germany is currently decreasing. In many places there are therefore easing in gastronomy, trade and culture *. “For us parents it was a bitter blow to hear that, for example, restaurants are now allowed to reopen indoors if the incidence is below 100, but secondary schools can only offer alternate classes with such numbers,” Zarah Abendschön-Sawall told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.
Petition against school closings: “Children must not be worse off than other areas”
The discrepancy between the measures in various areas of public life is incomprehensible to Abendschön-Sawall: “We simply think that children should not be placed in a worse position than other areas – especially since the coalition agreement states that children are the most valuable asset.” usually do not have a difficult course, from their point of view the risks for the health system are manageable. Likewise, the obligation to test for students * can help ensure that the openings do not endanger the infection process.
“We expressly oppose any type of automatic restrictions on regular operations in schools and day-care centers as well as group sports bans depending on reporting incidences in the Infection Protection Act,” says the petition. According to the authors, children and adolescents should “finally be able to return to normal day-care centers and schools after weeks of renouncing learning, encounters with their peers, sport and other joint activities”. * BW24 is an offer from Ippen.Media.
