Schools – Potsdam – Six schools closed due to Corona: 350 students tested positive – education

Potsdam (dpa / bb) – According to the Ministry of Education, six of 915 schools in Brandenburg are currently closed due to corona infections. That is around 0.7 percent of all public and independent schools, as the ministry announced on Wednesday. Schools in the country reported 21 new cases of infection (as of Tuesday). These include 15 schoolchildren and six teachers.

Among the 8,847 schoolchildren in quarantine, 350 have so far tested positive for the corona virus. They will continue to be taught distance lessons for the limited period of their quarantine, as the ministry said. The schools have developed emergency plans for this. A total of around 292,700 pupils are studying at Brandenburg’s schools.

So far, 714 quarantine cases have been reported by teachers from schools, 116 of them have been infected with the corona virus since the beginning of the pandemic. Around 24,000 teachers are employed in schools across the country. According to the Ministry, those affected are used for distance learning and other tasks.

According to state regulations, pupils must wear the everyday mask in all communal areas of the schools such as hallways and dining rooms. For students of the upper grades in grammar schools and the upper grades centers, the mask requirement also applies in class. Several times a day, at least after each lesson, the rooms are provided with shock or cross ventilation.

Education Minister Britta Ernst (SPD) told the “Potsdamer Neuesten Nachrichten” (Thursday) that she was expecting an expansion of the mask requirement in class to include younger age groups from grade 7. She thinks this is justifiable. The expansion of the mask requirement was always an option, but the state had to wait for the decision between the federal government and the states. “I still find it difficult to wear a mask in primary schools,” Ernst told the newspaper. In addition, teaching should be “equalized” in the upper grades. They believe that these students could learn independently. Concrete steps are being discussed.

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