How does distance education work in the Schweinfurt area?

“The current coronavirus pandemic poses great challenges for all of us, too or especially in school administration,” says Walter Schaeffer, president of the BLLV County Union (Federation of Bavarian Teachers).

Much has been reported publicly about the problems and difficulties. However, he was under the impression that remote teaching, including digital education, was now working well and that emergency care was well organized. To this end, the BLLV District Association conducted a survey of primary and secondary schools in the district. There were many creative solutions here. Four are listed here as examples.

“Distance lessons work well with us. We are fully working on the MS TEAMS platform. With very few exceptions, students are very reliable and colleagues are satisfied. Emergency care is also good, especially for children, more profitable form: I think we’ve all come to it.” Many good results from our experiments in the spring, says University President Peter Friedrich of Bergrheinfeld Middle School.

‘Homeschooling’ also got off to a good start in elementary and middle school in Bobbenhausen, according to Rector Sonia Thein. I noticed in the teachers that they were trying very hard to communicate with the students, and overall it was a crazy effort. Each hour should be carefully thought out and rescheduled out of the ordinary. You can see for yourself how long it takes, as an experienced teacher, to prepare this lesson.

According to university president Claudia Datzer, things are also going well at Gildersheim Elementary School. “We have the advantage that we are well equipped and that the staff can now also handle digital media well. It would like the Department of Education to provide tools that comply with data protection guidelines and also operate under a full load.” Emergency care is ongoing as well, but it is an extra burden on the staff, as we don’t have a lot of human resources at the small school.

“At Gerolshofen Primary School, distance learning takes place according to circumstances,” says university president Helmut Schmid. “We run a mix of analog kids / parents to fetch material and bring it back on a weekly basis, digital lessons via the home page, by email, all the way to the half-hour video conferences that take place twice a week. Fellows also call the kids.”

Parents weren’t complaining at the moment, and that meant everything was still reasonably fine. “But what if children are actually making the learning progress they are supposed to achieve?” Asks the president of the university. It was feared that the gaps, for example between children from educationally disadvantaged families and education-related families, would be greater. Another problem is that parents do not have an unstable W-LAN or they only have or cannot use the student loan equipment properly. It causes trouble making homework properly and leads to seeking help with research paper writing for less talented students. It makes an impact on the quality of learning. Distance lessons represent an enormous additional burden for peers. “Everyone yearns for the analog lessons,” said the university president.

“When it comes to digitization, politicians have overslept a lot. Nevertheless, college and school administrators have shown a tremendous amount of creativity and commitment in searching for digital solutions on site. And while the politicians were still hesitant, the schools acted.” BLLV President Walter. Schaeffer.

Things are going better than they were in Spring 2020, but not because the Ministry of Culture provided a lot of help, but because the teachers and the school management on the site are committed and creative and many children receive support from their parents.