Corona and school: A TME reader is critical of the current approach in NRW education policy, as she writes in an open letter:
“Dear Minister Gebauer,
Dear Sir or Madam of the Düsseldorf District Government in CC,
Today I would like to inform you personally that I do not agree with the current approach of education policy in NRW! They should know that there are many individual parents and teachers behind the demands of the teachers ‘and parents’ associations. For this reason, I am adding the open letter or the petition ‘Safety for Education / Care in the Pandemic’ of the association ‘Safety for Education in the Pandemic’ of October 13, 2020 to my letter, which I fully support. You know all the demands. Why are most of the demands not feasible in your opinion?
For several years I have been stunned by the blatant shortage of teachers in our school system. Just listening to our children and what they experience in everyday school life is incredible. Every year I hoped it would get better. Unfortunately it got worse and worse. An unbelievable number of lessons have been canceled for years! These numerous hours of education that our children are deprived of are lifetimes that they could have spent meaningfully! Instead, they usually do their time in school. What do you think the pupils will learn from this?
From my point of view, the increasing shortage of teachers in the corona pandemic has resulted in almost no education taking place at the school, but only “storage” – under precarious conditions.
From day to day I understand less why our education policy is fighting in this way to maintain the status quo in the education system, instead of separating from the traditional and taking an innovative, goal-oriented and sensible path.
Of the numerous requests and ideas that you and the KMK have received (such as the above-mentioned open letter), you have at least made it mandatory to wear mouth and nose protection in NRW. We had requested this requirement from the state government in the spring (after Easter at the latest). So much more would be required and possible !! Why can’t the classes be scaled down? Why can’t rolling lessons or lessons be given in shifts?
Our children do not need to read texts on their own on almost illegible copies under the supervision of non-specialist substitute teachers (because the specialist teacher belongs to the risk group and is not in school) in much too small classrooms with 30 pupils! No trace of digitization or inventiveness!
How should I explain to our children that in Australia the first ‘School of the Air’ started in 1960, which enabled distance learning, but in Germany in 2020 the pupils in 2020 in much too small classrooms in much too small classrooms in spite of the corona pandemic large class groups (in autumn with ventilation-ventilation-ventilation!) have to learn?
The trip to and from the school takes place in buses, in which nobody pays attention to compliance with the MNS! This situation is inexplicable and negligent! As parents, we send our children to an all-day school, where the most frequent lesson is called ‘ENTFALL’. What should our children come to school for under these general conditions? What should our children learn?
Why are the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute (see step-by-step plan) not being implemented in NRW? Why are individual, practical solutions not made possible? There is an answer to almost every question or idea why it is NOT possible!
We need a user-friendly, fast and reliable digital system. If this is still so far away, as in NRW, then the class groups have to be divided or quartered and the face-to-face lessons must take place on a rolling basis. We need a mixture of distance and face-to-face teaching or, if the number of infections is even worse, distance teaching again! It is about protecting the health of teachers, pupils and families!
We need more teachers, but we’ve known that for years. As long as we do not have this, however, education policy must become more creative and enable many more forms of distance learning. Since digitization was overslept in NRW, lessons can also be covered by radio if necessary. Why not? Other countries are showing us how to do it: In Kenya, there is an ‘Out of Classroom Learning’ on radio and television. That is better than not learning (‘omission’) and sitting down in small (and soon very cold and wet) classrooms with 30 pupils! It cannot be understood or explained !!
Personally, I am dismayed by the educational system in 2020 in a pandemic in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – as my children have to get to know or suffer through!
This ‘open letter’ is also sent to the Düsseldorf district government in CC so that the distribution of teaching staff to comprehensive schools in North Rhine-Westphalia after retirement and sick leave of teachers due to high-risk diseases and pregnancy can be checked. To what extent were positions in favor of the grammar schools due to the switch to G9 for the 2019/2020 school year, so that there were particularly precarious situations in the comprehensive schools? “
Dr. Christiane Krüger from Velbert
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