Window ventilation remains the only method in many Berlin schools. “The goal is not to have an air filter in every room,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education said. It’s hanging spatial ventilation condition from. The state regulates 7,748 mobile devices. At the beginning of school in late summer, each classroom should have a devicesaid the speaker. It is unclear whether that is sufficient.

It is said that if the windows cannot be opened, the state is not responsible – because the departments are responsible for structural actions. The cost of the air purifiers amounted to 15 million euros. At the end of the school year, 55 percent of the 7,748 devices had been delivered.

The devices are important because coronaviruses spread primarily through aerosols from the air we breathe – the more people in a room, the denser and faster they become. Many other federal states still do not have an overview of the number of air filtration systems newly installed in schools. This was the result of a recent inquiry about the daily mirror among the Ministries of Education.

“Municipalities/agencies are responsible for purchasing and installing air filters,” said Saxony, for example. Hessen, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were unable to say how many machines had been purchased – although in some cases they supported them with state funding.

All schools in Hamburg are equipped with ventilators

Rhineland-Palatinate indicated that 1,100 devices were funded through a government funding program. Bavaria gave the school authorities money for 14,100 devices, but does not know how many have actually been delivered. About 200 classrooms are equipped in Saarland. Hamburg Senator Ties Rabe (SPD) recently promised that all schools would receive the devices by the end of the holiday.

From the point of view of the German Teachers’ Union, schools are not in a better position in terms of protection from infection than last year. Only a few federal states have funding programs for mobile room air filtration systems. In addition, many countries in the third wave have long hesitated with the mask requirement, said association president Heinz-Peter Medinger.

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Medinger welcomed the Federal Department of Economics’ new funding program for room air purification systems. However, at the same time, he was afraid that the lengthy application process would not change much before the start of classes. Medinger also criticized the fact that the Education Ministers’ Conference has not yet made any recommendation to school authorities on room air filters. The Teachers’ Association estimates that 20 percent of classrooms are poorly ventilated and less than five percent of classrooms have filtration systems. Inventory nationwide is still missing today.