Education unions warn of class cancellations or even school closures if many teachers fall ill in a possible new corona wave. The federal chairman of the Association for Education and Training (VBE), Udo Beckmann, told the editorial network Germany (RND) on Monday:

"If the protection and thus the health of the teachers is not sufficiently taken into account, the school closures will come all by themselves against the background of the already dramatic shortage of staff and the corresponding sick leave," criticized Beckmann.

The chairwoman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, fears the same. "Should there be significantly more cases of illness among employees in schools and daycare centers, there will be even more classes canceled due to the already existing shortage of teachers," Finnern told RND. Illness-related gaps could no longer be compensated.

Beckmann warned that schools and daycare centers should remain open. "For this reason in particular, we are concerned that the Infection Protection Act falls well short of our expectations."

The Infection Protection Act applies from October 1st and provides that the federal states can prescribe corona tests in schools and daycare centers. Masks may also be compulsory in schools from class five, provided this is “necessary to maintain regulated face-to-face teaching”. School closures should no longer exist as a corona protection measure.

The fact that the law does not prescribe a temporary mask requirement when the number of infections increases is met with incomprehension by VBE chairman Beckmann: "This means that a very effective measure to enable classroom teaching and still be relatively safe from infection has been categorically ruled out."