In order to support British schools during the new lockdown, the BBC broadcasts several hours of classes every day. Starting Monday, three hours of primary school lessons will be broadcast every day, plus at least two hours for secondary school students, the broadcaster announced.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson thanked the broadcaster for their support. Willamson also announced that it would be distributing a million laptops and tablets to students whose families cannot afford end devices.

In the past, Boris Johnson has repeatedly expressed criticism of public broadcasting in Great Britain. As recently as February 2020 it became known that Johnson was planning a restructuring of the broadcaster. So the previous fee obligation should be switched to a subscription model. Critics of the Prime Minister accused him of wanting to minimize voices critical of the government.

Because of the rapid spread of the corona virus in Great Britain, the government had a lockdown with school closings and exit restrictions. Parliament should approve the measures on Wednesday.

Johnson and Williamson are criticized for making the decision to close schools too late. Johnson had stressed on Sunday that most facilities should remain open. As a result, millions of children returned to schools on Monday. On the same evening the Prime Minister announced the closings.

Offers in Germany In Germany the Bavarian offers Broadcast the program “Schule daheim”, which counts all grades as the target group and covers several school subjects. The content can be called up in the BR media library and via the ARD-alpha educational channel. The BR also provides numerous programs on the information portal www.mebis.bayern.de from the Bavarian State Media Center. The online portal “Planet Schule”, a cooperation between SWR and WDR, has been offering multimedia educational content since 2008. In March 2020 the SWR announced that the accesses had increased fivefold.

Offer of the Bavarian Media Center updated

(ndi)