On Monday, “Hart aber“ fair ”(ARD) with Frank Plasberg will deal with the question of how families and children deal with Corona. There are many problems.
Berlin – Children and young people are often only a marginal note in political and media discussions when it comes to current issues and the consequences of the corona pandemic to be feared and how to deal with them. If anything, it is mostly about problems of learning, teaching and effort for the parents, less about the mental well-being of the weakest in society, whose protection should actually be our most important task.
Also in this week’s edition of “Hart aber fair” with Frank Plasberg on ARD on the subject of “Unvaccinated, unprotected, not schooled: Does the state fail the families?”, This time it is often about school issues, but thankfully other aspects also come up Language. Pediatrician Susanne Epplée in particular is sure that the pandemic will leave huge traces on her protégés, especially since the waiting lists are getting longer and longer because the flood of cases can no longer be dealt with. Symptoms of stress, stomach aches, headaches and concentration disorders in children have increased massively in the last year. Not to mention the infections in children with the virus itself.
“Hard but fair” (ARD): Pediatrician warns of lifelong health risks in children
Some of the small patients even develop malpositions and disabilities because therapy appointments cannot take place. In addition, more and more children are overweight due to the lack of sports and play opportunities. This could be associated with lifelong health risks. A single player comes up with the hard numbers to confirm: 38 percent of all children and adolescents stated that they had practically not moved at all in the past year; before the pandemic it was only four percent.
| Guest at Hart but fair with Frank Plasberg | function |
| Aladin El-Mafaalani | Sociologist and author |
| Susanne Epplée | Pediatrician |
| Thorsten Frühmark | Lawyer and local mayor |
| Mareile Höppner | Moderator of the ARD magazine “Brisant” |
| Anja Karliczek | Federal Minister for Education and Research, CDU |
The sociologist and author Aladin El-Mafaalani shares many of the pediatrician’s worries and fears and adds more. Children and young people would only be able to develop their personality, assertiveness and cognitive skills together with their peers. Many children with a migration background would only learn and speak the German language in school, and quite a few of them would have forgotten it when the school closed. He also names the problem of addicted parents, for whose children it is particularly difficult to cope with the corona restrictions and who are almost completely dependent on contacting committed teachers or street workers.
“Hard but fair” (ARD): Sociologist calls for quick countermeasures for children and families
El-Mafaalani is certain: the failures before and during the pandemic, not having invested in better structures, will be with us for a long time if the government does not counteract quickly and aggressively. She urgently needs to adopt measures that compensate for the deficits that have arisen due to missed daycare visits, a lack of regular classes and suspended support measures. Otherwise, one will continue to enjoy this educational problem for a decade, says the sociologist, who rightly criticizes the imbalance between open companies and offices on the one hand and closed daycare centers and schools that are inadequately equipped on the other.
On behalf of many parents, lawyer and local mayor Thorsten Frühmark and the “Brisant” presenter Mareile Höppner have their say. Both describe how they and their children master homeschooling and how at the beginning of the pandemic one benefited from each other through more joint activities, but now the children’s longing for encounters with friends, sport and a regular daily routine have predominated. Parents could not replace educators, places for integration would be missing and events that were important for child development, such as celebrations or school trips and graduation trips, would be eliminated – it is therefore important to close these gaps now in order to avoid mental harm, explains Höppner.
Parents report on “Hart aber fair” (ARD): The German bureaucracy continues to be a major obstacle
In addition, it is frightening to see how parents in many places actively find ways and means to help the schools, but then the necessary applications are officially rejected because the measures do not meet the legal standards. For example, many schools are still waiting for enough laptops for children from socially disadvantaged families and for the installation of usable air filter systems, according to local mayor Frühmark.
Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek has to assert herself against all of them, uttering the usual political phrases about state welfare orders, opening considerations and mobility guidelines, and thus avoiding the question of what went wrong. However, even she is of the opinion that in exceptional situations such as a pandemic, the aspect of whether all German TÜV and DIN standards have to be complied with should be pushed aside, regardless of whether it is ventilation systems, digitization or data protection.
Minister Karliczek on “Hart aber fair” (ARD): There is a lack of inspired ideas to help children and families
The best solutions are always those that are developed on site and ideally supported by local authorities quickly. The state should only become active when major investments are made in order to provide targeted help. As a first step for the next few months, Karliczek names the tutoring programs, which are funded by the federal government with one billion euros, further one has to wait and see. The much more extensive, already established additional educational programs in some other countries are unfortunately not mentioned.
It gets emotional in the last third of the program: a short film shows 19-year-old Hanan how she helps her three younger siblings to organize online lessons – on just two tablets at the same time, while both parents have to work – and how she herself is still on the side learns on a small smartphone for her own training as a social assistant. Frank Plasberg welcomes the young woman who fled Syria to Germany with her family five years ago, then also in the studio and asks her a few questions. Despite all their optimism, Hanan’s answers make it clear how difficult the corona crisis is particularly affecting those who come from less privileged backgrounds like the other studio guests.
“Hard but fair” one-player: 19-year-old shows how “poorly educated” children are left behind because of Corona
After an applause for Hanan, they all agree on one point: for socially disadvantaged families and people in hot spots, particularly viable concepts are required. Without them, the children there would be even more detached from the rest of society in the coming years than is already the case. But what these concepts should look like in concrete terms, they, above all the Federal Minister of Education, owe them, as is so often the case.
A final clip on the corona incidences using the example of Cologne underpins what is actually already well-known: poorer districts, in which people live in close quarters, are also hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of the number of illnesses. And snippets of surveys from Bochum show that where there are language and educational problems, a lack of information quickly arises, which in turn leads to vaccination fears and mistrust.
As always, well-prepared Frank Plasberg asked his well-selected guests all the right and important questions on the subject. It will only be seen in the coming months whether “the state will let the families down” or whether it will still help them sufficiently. (Peter Hoch)
