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SCHOOL

Student forced to hitch ride home with tractor

14-year-old Johan Hedén from western Sweden was dropped off by a school transport service some eight kilometres from his home, where the driver who was out of petrol flagged down a tractor to take the boy the rest of the way.

Student forced to hitch ride home with tractor

“Neither I nor my son have any idea who the man was, but it was very kind of him to take Johan home,” the 14-year-old’s father, Mikael Hedén, told the local Borås Tidningen (BT) newspaper.

Johan was travelling home from school last week a with school transport service, which since 2010 has been operated by the local branch of taxi company Taxi Kurir.

When the vehicle was eight kilometres from his home, the taxi driver stopped by the side of the road and said he was forced to pull over as he was “out of fuel”.

The driver then started talking to a man who was scraping the road with a tractor.

The tractor driver agreed to help out the stranded teenager. He drove Johan back to his own home where he changed from the tractor to his own car and then gave the teen a lift home.

Although grateful to the unknown tractor operator, Johan’s parents are upset about the incident.

“No one knew who this man was. It could have been someone with less than pleasant intentions. Of course things like this can’t be allowed to happen,” Hedén told the paper.

Hedén added that it was not the first time there had been complaints against the taxi company:

“The children have had to wait for over an hour on many occasions, the car has been overfilled or the driver has not known the way to his destination,” he said.

According to the local authorities, a crisis meeting will be held between the taxi company and municipality staff.

“There have been too many complaints and we want to hear their version of events. We have clear demands and they must follow these,” Christer Norberg, head of transportion services in the municipality, told the paper.

The Local/rm

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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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