Mayor calls for partial abolition of compulsory attendance at schools

"Due to the dramatic situation at Thuringian schools and daycare centers and the significantly weaker infection protection in the facilities compared to our neighboring federal states, we hope that the decision of the Minister of Education will now bring openness back into the ministry to bring the facilities safely through the pandemic together with the cities and districts as school authorities," commented Mayor Gerlitz on behalf of the Jena crisis team on today's news for a change of personnel in the Thuringian Ministry of Education.

Jena currently has a relatively stable infection situation - except for one age group: children. Yesterday we once again reached a sad peak with an incidence of 2,700 among primary school children, while the figure for senior citizens is just over 200. The number of cases among minors is also continuing to rise, while the figures for other age groups are falling. But while Bavaria and Saxony have long since arrived at mandatory daily tests, in Thuringia it is sometimes not even possible to provide the two voluntary tests in time. It is also anything but clear from a legal point of view that it is legitimate to maintain compulsory attendance until the last day in the current situation, given the obvious inadequacy of infection control measures. While it has been possible to guarantee vaccinations for older pupils from the age of 12 for some time, pupils - and their parents - up to year 6 are facing a situation where vaccinations are only just starting.

"Tomorrow, Jena will be launching a major vaccination campaign for children aged 5 to 11, so that all families who wish to do so can be offered vaccinations as soon as possible. The worrying news about more severe cases in children caused by the Omikron variant, which is also likely to spread in Germany soon, will certainly provide the impetus for many parents to get vaccinated. But even a concentrated vaccination campaign, as Jena is now starting, will only mean full vaccination protection in 5 to 7 weeks for those families who decide to do so quickly," says Mayor Gerlitz

So far, children have had no opportunity to protect themselves against the disease through vaccination, while at the same time they have to expose themselves to an acute risk of infection due to compulsory attendance at schools and an inadequate testing regime. In Thuringia, too, the number of hospitalized children is increasing in individual districts, and with incidences in children sometimes 5 or even 10 times higher than the already high Thuringian figures, this is a very real threat to which families in Thuringia are currently exposed.

Mayor Gerlitz concludes as follows: "The question for us is: given the dramatic infection situation and the inadequate infection protection measures compared to other federal states, should we continue to force children who have not yet been able to protect themselves with a vaccination to continue to be exposed to the particularly high risk of infection in Thuringia. For me, this is very clear: as long as the children have not been able to take advantage of vaccination offers or it is ensured that they only meet other pupils who are tested or vaccinated on a daily basis, this is definitely not the case. 3G or even 2G+ now applies everywhere, but this is not supposed to apply in schools, even in conjunction with compulsory attendance? For this reason, we are calling on the Minister of Education to immediately abolish compulsory attendance for all pupils under the age of 12 and to ensure more extensive infection protection measures in the facilities. School operations must be made safer immediately, especially with regard to the Omikron variant."