In view of the continued high number of infections in the Free State of Saxony, the state government decided in today’s cabinet meeting to implement a tough lockdown. Schools, day-care centers and day-care centers are also affected.
The situation is serious. The previous measures to contain the corona pandemic could not reduce the number of new infections. In today’s cabinet meeting, the Saxon state government, after intensive consultation and deliberation, therefore agreed to reduce contacts even more consistently in all economic and social areas in order to avert overloading of our health system. This also has consequences for school and daycare operations.
All day care facilities will be closed from December 14, 2020 to January 8, 2021.
In the same period of time, all pupils in general and vocational schools go to home study. The school attendance requirement is lifted for this time. Emergency care will be set up for primary school pupils (elementary school and special needs school, grades 1 – 4). Emergency care will also be offered for daycare and after-school care children from December 14 to 22, 2020 and January 4 to 8, 2021. In order to keep contacts as limited as possible, emergency care is only offered to a very limited group of people in systemically relevant professions. A new corona protection ordinance regulates further details, which will be decided on Friday in a special session of the cabinet.
Minister of Education Christian Piwarz appealed for understanding. “We didn’t make the decision easy for ourselves. We all know that successful educational processes require personal interaction. ”At the same time, he asked the schools to use the next few days to prepare for home study. “Please use the remaining days to organize binding communication channels with students and parents,” said the minister. He reminded that teachers should provide their students with tasks and materials for home study and distribute them through appropriate channels.
The central digital services for schools can be used for this purpose. Teachers and students can use the central identity management School login Register with just one login and access the learning platforms directly LernSax (Linking the personal school login account with an existing LernSax account), OPAL school, the MeSax media library and many other services. In order to be able to carry out video conferences quickly and easily, the BigBlueButton video conference service is centrally available to all schools in Saxony via the school login. In addition, the online learning platform sofatutor offers access to around 11,000 learning videos, 43,000 interactive exercises and 38,000 worksheets for all grades. If necessary, the accesses are distributed via the State Office for Schools and Education. With the access, schoolchildren can use the learning platform free of charge for one month.
“We are working flat out to ensure that schools can work as fully as possible in face-to-face classes from January 11, 2021,” concluded Minister of Education Christian Piwarz.
