Off to the summer holidays! Most students can hardly wait for the last gong, as they now have six weeks without lessons ahead of them. The teachers also often urgently need rest - and are anxious about what will come after the holidays.
Munich (dpa / lby) - The last day of school this Friday is the start of the summer holidays for around 1.6 million children and young people in Bavaria. Whether meeting friends, outdoor pool or family vacation - the anticipation is huge for many. According to statements by the associations, the teachers often go into the non-teaching period exhausted. They will urgently need the rest, because the challenges in the next school year are still great: Corona, the integration of the Ukrainian refugees and the energy crisis are just a few of the keywords.
"It was a very stressful school year because everything is now almost normal from the organizational point of view, from the performance surveys, the timing, the class trips - despite all the adversities, we tried to organize the normal program," summarizes Michael Schwägerl from the Bavarian Philologists' Association in an interview the German Press Agency. At the same time, two major challenges had to be overcome with Corona and the consequences of the war of aggression in Ukraine. "And the uncertainty for the fall is huge."
Keyword Corona: "The question is which tool box will be given to the schools," says Schwägerl. Recently, voices have increased that sick students should no longer even be in quarantine. "We are hoping for guidelines from the federal and state governments that will make schools safe," Schwägerl demands.
This also means that only healthy people are allowed to be present in the school buildings. Otherwise cases of illness are also pre-programmed among the teachers, "and the problem of substitutions was already very difficult this school year". In many places, 10 to 20 percent of a college were absent at the same time over a long period of time, with only about one percent being able to be intercepted by the teacher reserve. Not to mention the possible (late) consequences of a corona infection.
The chairman of the secondary school teachers' association, Jürgen Böhm, is therefore calling for more corona tests at the beginning of the new school year. So far, only a single, voluntary test before the start is planned. “That should not only be before the start, but also in the first 14 days, three weeks, four weeks – again and again depending on the infection,” says Böhm. And also asks the question: "How do you deal with students who are clearly symptomatic later on - do you offer them another test in the schools?"
Keyword Ukraine refugees: More than 26,000 children and young people have already arrived at Bavaria's schools. Schwägerl worries whether the positions created for the welcome classes can also be filled. According to him, it is also problematic: All age groups sit in the welcome classes at secondary schools at the same time. Maybe not a problem when learning German - in math and English, on the other hand, there are enormous spreads.
"With all the problems we have, one of our most important tasks is that we support these young people from the Ukraine," emphasizes Böhm. "A lot has happened there, jobs have been created and funds are possible, but it also needs to be clarified how we can integrate the content of the Ukrainian lessons into the bridging classes."
Keyword energy crisis: "Let's see if there isn't a heating crisis in addition to a corona crisis," warns Böhm. He is quite worried about the recommendation to lower the temperature in public buildings to 19 degrees in winter. Böhm therefore draws the conclusion: "The challenges are enormous. It's no fun, you can't start the school year completely naïvely."
