Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has called on the federal states not to make use of mask requirements in schools for the time being. “The students need as much normality as possible in the new school year,” said the FDP politician on Thursday of the German Press Agency. In the new Infection Protection Act, masks are only provided in schools from the fifth grade and only as a last resort if face-to-face teaching would otherwise be endangered.
“This is a tough criterion. My expectation is that the countries will not make use of it in the current corona situation,” she added. “The situation would only change in the event of a new virus variant that is significantly more contagious and dangerous.”
The Bundestag is voting on new regulations in the Infection Protection Act this Thursday. They are the legal basis for corona measures in the federal states and name possible instruments. The federal states should be allowed to prescribe mask requirements at schools, but only from the fifth grade and only to the extent that this is “necessary to maintain regulated classroom teaching”.
