Bavaria: Fewer and fewer high school graduates want to become teachers – Bavaria

There are fewer and fewer student teachers at Bavaria’s universities. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Science to a request from the SPD in the state parliament. In 2017, 8,127 students were still enrolled in teaching at primary and secondary schools, junior high schools and grammar schools, but by 2021 the number had fallen by around seven percent to 7,565.

The number of first-year students for middle school changed particularly drastically in the period mentioned, with a drop of 62 percent: while in 2017 there were still 1460 students enrolled in the first semester for middle school, in 2021 only 551 young people chose this training path.

“We are seeing a very worrying development here. It shows that the already serious shortage of teachers in secondary schools will continue to worsen,” said SPD MP Simone Strohmayr. Better pay for teachers at elementary, middle and special schools is therefore necessary. “You start your career with about 700 euros less than, for example, high school teachers.

That’s unfair and puts off those who could well imagine becoming a middle school teacher.” Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (Free Voters) recently declared that he was still in favor of raising the starting salary to the uniform level A 13. But in the coalition with the CSU one could not assert oneself.

In the past few days and weeks there have been repeated reports of a large shortage of teachers in Bavaria’s schools. The Teachers’ Association (BLLV) put the number of missing workers at 4,000. Piazolo, however, rejected the number as incorrect and explained that there had never been as many teachers in Bavaria’s schools as there are now. Nevertheless, the state government also said that in view of the corona-related staff shortages, the tense applicant market and the refugee movements triggered by the Ukraine war, it was “an increasing challenge” to cover the need for teachers.

“If you want good teaching, you have to train new teachers,” said Strohmayr. However, there are only enough people interested in this job if the study and working conditions are attractive. This is obviously not the case in Bavaria, warned the education policy spokeswoman. “It can’t go well in the long run.” Ultimately, the minus is “homemade”, the CSU and Free Voters have been ignoring all proposals to make the teaching profession and training more attractive for years.

The degrees of student teachers in the types of schools mentioned have also fallen by 30 percent, emphasized Strohmayr: while 5,720 students passed exams in 2017, there were only 4,022 last year is that many students generally classify the teacher training program as in urgent need of reform,” said Strohmayr.

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