Following the example of the British broadcaster BBC, public broadcasters in Germany have announced that they will release more educational content during the latest lockdown, to help children keep up with their lessons while schools remain closed. 

TV channels to help with lessons during lockdown

The BBC announced last week that it would air several hours of lessons each day from the beginning of next week, with different channels providing content for primary and secondary school students. The measure is intended to support families with home schooling during the latest lockdown. 

With primary and secondary schools also remaining closed in most parts of Germany until at least the end of January, a number of public broadcasters have announced that they too will be upping their educational output. 

Free educational resources online in Germany

Under the title “Schule daheim” (school at home), the channel ARD-alpha will be broadcasting educational programmes for all types of schools and subjects from Monday, January 11 onwards. The lessons will air weekdays between 9 am and 12 pm. At the same time, the YouTube channel “alphaLernen” will begin to produce a comprehensive range of learning videos. 

A further source of learning content is “Schule daheim - Online lernen”, a library of videos put together by the regional broadcaster BR. The channel has been running since the first lockdown in March 2020, offering a wide variety of learning content for pupils of all levels. It has been continuously expanded since then and is to have even more content added in the coming months. 

There will also be “special programming” for a total of three weeks from Monday on all platforms of the ARD and ZDF children's channel (KiKA). According to a spokesperson, ZDF has also “significantly increased” its offerings in the ZDF media library, every week adding new explanatory videos covering a range of subjects, including geography, biology, chemistry and physics.