Vienna and Burgenland already announced this at the end of July, Lower Austria and Salzburg have now followed suit, and Carinthia is also tending in this direction. In Styria and Vorarlberg, on the other hand, you can teach with an FFP2 mask. Upper Austria takes a middle ground: only elementary school teachers are not allowed to go to class with an infection.
Minister of Education wanted uniform regulation
In general, the requirement in Austria is that symptom-free infected people can go to work if they wear an FFP2 mask throughout. According to the will of Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (ÖVP), this should also apply to the school sector – teachers should therefore teach with FFP2 masks despite infection and schoolchildren (except for elementary school students) should also be allowed to attend classes with FFP2 masks. In the case of teachers, however, the federal government is only the employer of AHS and BMHS teachers – at compulsory schools these are the states, so they can set different requirements for their employees.
Vienna and the Burgenland announced immediately after the rules for the general public were announced that other requirements apply in their compulsory schools and that teachers are not allowed to go into the classroom with an infection. The other federal states wanted to wait for the announcement of the school rules, which were presented by Polaschek on Monday.
Lower Austria like Vienna and Burgenland, will also not use corona-positive teachers in the classrooms of its compulsory schools. “Anyone who is ill is ill and should take sick leave and stay at home. For infected teachers who have no symptoms but absolutely want to go to work, we will find other solutions such as administrative work,” said Christiane Teschl-Hofmeister (ÖVP ) on Monday evening in the “Lower Austria Today” interview.
Also Salzburg recently indicated that it would deviate from the federal path – now that’s fixed: compulsory school teachers who tested positive for Covid-19 will be released from work for five days. This is done in the sense of the safety and health of everyone involved, emphasized Education Councilor Daniela Gutschi (ÖVP) in the state correspondence. Furthermore, students who are infected with Corona but are asymptomatic are strongly advised not to attend school. “That’s particularly important to me, because I’m convinced that we have to take the children, young people, teachers and families into account and pay special attention to their health,” says Gutschi.
Carinthia also tends not to let any corona-infected educators teach in compulsory schools, it said on Tuesday at the APA request from the office of education officer and governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ). There is also a corresponding recommendation from the state for elementary education. The federal rules presented on Monday would now be “closely examined and assessed”. The Carinthian Corona coordination committee will still deal with it, consultation will also be held with staff representatives and the union. Next week, the information about the new school year in Carinthia will be presented at a press conference.
In the Styria On the other hand, infected teachers who are asymptomatic are allowed to teach with an FFP2 mask, the education department told the APA. Personal responsibility should be given more priority. The decision as to whether one is fit for service is at the discretion of teachers and students – and the directors. “People who feel healthy despite the Covid infection can take part in school life if increased hygiene measures are observed. This regulation applies to federal and state teachers alike.”
In Vorarlberg Symptom-free teachers infected with Covid-19 will probably also be allowed to teach with an FFP2 mask. As in Carinthia, the final decision has not yet been made. They want to discuss the question at an education summit on Wednesday, said school councilor Barbara Schöbi-Fink (ÖVP) to the APA. In her eyes, however, it does not make sense to define special rules for teachers. If, for example, commercial employees or nurses without symptoms are allowed to work with FFP2 masks, this should also apply to teachers.
Going a middle way Upper Austria: In principle, symptom-free teachers should be allowed to teach – however, the large area of elementary schools is an exception to this. There should be no infected teachers working with the children.
Source: Nachrichten
