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SCHOOL

Bus driver kicks off 19 pre-school kids

Three adults and 19 children under the age of five were told to leave a bus in southern Sweden and were forced to walk 4 kilometres when the driver complained that the school's collective ticket was 30 kronor ($4.60) short.

Bus driver kicks off 19 pre-school kids

With the exception of two children who were one-year-olds and in push chairs, all of the young Malmö passengers were between the ages of 2.5 and 5.

When the bus driver complained that their ticket was 30 kronor short of a full fare, he made all 22 passengers disembark. The adults then led the children back to their pre-school – a walk of roughly 4 kilometres that took over two hours to complete.

“This doesn’t make sense. 19 children at this age shouldn’t walk so far in traffic. But they were very good, but the parents were extremely upset when they heard about it,” teacher Carina Klang-Christensson told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

She blamed the driver for providing incorrect information, informing the adults that a “duo ticket” counts for an adult and two children, when in reality it should count for an adult and four children. In total, and taking into account the duo tickets, the money the pre-school had should have been enough for a so-called Jojo ticket – but not according to the driver.

A spokesperson for Skånetrafiken, the company responsible for the bus, apologized for the incident.

“This has gone completely wrong, and I can only apologize,” the spokeswoman, Ulrika Mebius, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

“The driver gave the wrong information about the prices. It was probably due to this that the total money didn’t add up for the Jojo card.”

The driver has now been called in to the company headquarters, Mebius added, and the children are likely to get ice-cream, or some other similar form of compensation, reported the paper.

TT/The Local/og

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SCHOOL

Bavaria plans 100 million rapid Covid tests to allow all pupils to return to school

In the southern state of Bavaria, schools have been promised 100 million self-tests starting next week so that more children can start being taught in person again. But teachers say the test strategy isn't being implemented properly.

Bavaria plans 100 million rapid Covid tests to allow all pupils to return to school
Children in the classroom in Bavaria. Photo:Matthias Balk/DPA

State leaders Markus Söder said on Friday that the first 11 million of the DIY tests had already arrived and would now be distributed through the state.

“It’s no good in the long run if the testing for the school is outside the school,” Söder told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) during a visit to a school in Nuremberg.

“Contrary to what has been planned in Berlin, we’ve pre-ordered in Bavaria: for this year we have 100 million tests.”

Bavaria, Germany’s largest state in terms of size, plans to bring all children back into schools starting on Monday.

SEE ALSO: ‘The right thing to do’ – How Germany is reopening its schools

However, high coronavirus case rates mean that these plans have had to be shelved in several regions.

In Nuremberg, the state’s second largest city, primary school children have been sent back into distance learning after just a week back in the classroom.

The city announced on Friday that schools would have to close again after the 7-day incidence rose above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The nearby city of Fürth closed its schools after just two days of classroom time on Wednesday, after the 7-day incidence rose to 135.

The Bavarian test strategy plans for school children to receive one test per week, while teachers have the possibility of taking two tests a week. The testing is not compulsory.

But teachers’ unions in the southern state have warned that the test capacity only exists on paper and have expressed concern that their members will become infected in the workplace.

“Our teachers are afraid of infection,” Almut Wahl, headmistress of a secondary school in Munich, told BR24.

“Officially they are allowed to be tested twice a week, we have already received a letter about this. But the tests are not there.”

BR24 reports that, contrary to promises made by the state government, teachers in many schools have still not been vaccinated, ventilation systems have not been installed in classrooms, and the test infrastructure has not been put in place.

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