Thuringia Extends Program to Address Learning Deficits Among Children and Young People After the Corona Pandemic

Erfurt – The program to catch up on learning deficits among children and young people after the corona pandemic has been extended in Thuringia. The corresponding guideline would have expired at the end of the school year, but is now valid until the end of the year, a spokesman for the Thuringian Ministry of Education told the German Press Agency in Erfurt.

The corona pandemic with lockdowns, temporary school closures and distance learning had a major impact on everyday school life. In order to catch up on the learning deficits among children and young people, the federal government had launched a program worth billions. It goes back to the previous federal government with the then Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU).

Within this framework, around 53 million euros were available for Thuringia, half of which should come from the federal government.

According to earlier information from the Ministry of Education, however, it was recently expected that only around 13 million of them would be used by the end of the current school year. The reason given by the Ministry was, among other things, the short duration of the program.

However, unused money should not flow back to the federal government, as a spokeswoman for the Thuringian Ministry of Finance explained. The funds are not subsidies, but additional sales tax revenue to which the federal states are entitled. There is no legal earmarking of the funds. “Of course we are already using it for this action program, but if it is not exhausted, it goes into the state budget as normal and is available there,” said the spokeswoman. Table.Media had previously reported about it.

In Thuringia, this has so far been used to pay for educational courses during the holidays, stays in school camps or sports activities. Voluntary, paid overtime for teachers was also financed from this pot.

The education policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group, Ria Schröder, criticized the fact that unused money could flow into the Thuringian state budget. “The corona pandemic has severely exacerbated the learning deficits and unequal future opportunities for children from educationally disadvantaged homes. I have no idea why there is any idle funds at all when the challenges are gigantic,” she shared. Thuringia must “make the effort” to use the money sensibly. The previous practice that the federal government pays but has no say in how the funds are used does not work and “opens the floodgates to mismanagement,” says Schröder.