For months, students had to test themselves for Corona two or three times a week. After the Easter holidays, the last week of mandatory tests is now beginning for many.
After the mask requirement has been lifted, the time for mandatory corona tests in schools is now coming to an end.
As a dpa survey in the 16 federal states showed, the obligation to test has already been abolished in six countries or ends at the beginning of the new week, in six countries it expires at the end of the week at the latest at the turn of the month. Only in Berlin and Thuringia is there further testing: in Thuringia until May 6th and in Berlin “until further notice”, according to the education administration. Hamburg and Saarland have not yet made any decisions about how to deal with tests from May.
Educational associations criticize the end
Educational unions and the German Teachers’ Association criticized the extensive end of compulsory testing. Teachers’ Association President Heinz-Peter Meidinger told the dpa: “We are confronted with the justified concern of families who have risk persons and previously ill children in their own households.” The lifting of all health protection measures is also at the expense of the graduating students, who feared missing exams or having to make up exams because of an infection. According to Meidinger, many high school graduates are currently staying at home as a precaution and are skipping classes “because health protection in schools has often been reduced to zero”.
The deputy chairman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Andreas Keller, called it “negligent” to refrain from testing after the mask requirement had been abolished. “This is the last effective preventive measure that contributes to protecting the health of employees, students and their parents. The corona pandemic is not over yet,” said Keller. “Ending all protective measures is playing with fire, which can fall on the schools’ feet with the next wave.”
The chairman of the Education and Training Association (VBE), Udo Beckmann, said: Anyone who wants to enable continuous school operations in presence with a still high level of infection must carefully consider whether now is the right time to take preventive measures such as tests and masks dispense.
Most schools do away with tests
At the beginning of the month, the mask requirement was abolished in most schools in accordance with the requirements of the Infection Protection Act. However, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had declared themselves hotspots and were therefore allowed to keep them. In both countries, however, the hotspot phase will expire in the next few days (MV April 27th, HH April 30th) and with it the mask requirement. On the other hand, mandatory tests in schools were and are still legally possible throughout Germany. However, most countries do not do this. Instead, voluntary and event-related tests will be offered in the future, for example in the event of symptoms or if a school trip is imminent.
There is obviously enough capacity: According to earlier information from the Berlin Education Senator Astrid-Sabine Busse (SPD), the state of Berlin still has millions of tests in reserve and could “easily come by the summer holidays”.
Source: Stern
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