School closings: Teachers’ Association calls for a voluntary additional year of study due to Corona gaps

M.ith a two billion euro funding concept, the German Teachers Association wants to close the learning gaps among schoolchildren that occurred in the Corona year. At the center of the paper, on which the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe report, are two instruments: Firstly, an individual, additional support for children with relatively little arrears to accompany the next school year. And secondly, the offer of a voluntary additional year of learning for those with greater deficits.

The additional year could either take place as a repetition of the previous year accompanied by additional funding or in separate study groups for repeating students with an adapted curriculum.

According to the association, the additional staff required for this should come from different groups: student teachers, part-time teachers who are to be motivated to increase through “attractive conditions”, and retired teachers. In addition, schools could work together with external partners and institutions such as private tutoring providers, adult education centers and youth welfare offices.

No more funding this school year

For the implementation, the association is calling for a federal-state program amounting to at least two billion euros by summer 2022, “analogous to the digital pact”, as it says in the paper. “In this school year there will be nothing with catch-up funding, whoever claims that is wrong,” said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger to the newspapers. You now have to take the time in schools to see where the children are and then offer advice. “Basically, in May we should know what kind of funding opportunities there are for the next year. It has to go really quickly now. “

According to the proposal, schools should have as much leeway as possible in implementation and, among other things, should be able to adapt curricula and timetables. “In this question, a totally central control is not expedient,” explained Meidinger.

According to estimates by the teachers’ association, 400 to 600 lessons could not be held in attendance last year – at the top that corresponds to about half a school year. And even if distance teaching is now working better, learning progress in this way is still less, according to the paper.

Meidinger assumes that around a fifth of the students were “left behind” in the past year. Around half of these would need an additional school year to catch up. Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) recently announced a tutoring program with a volume of one billion euros.

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source https://pledgetimes.com/school-closings-teachers-association-calls-for-a-voluntary-additional-year-of-study-due-to-corona-gaps/