Bavaria: Söder wants to poach teachers from other federal states – Bavaria

In order to combat the shortage of staff in Bavarian schools, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to poach numerous teachers from other federal states. To this end, he is planning enticements, such as financial incentives and relocation assistance. The poaching offensive is intended to help fill a total of 6,000 new teaching positions that Söder wants to create in Bavaria by 2028. He also plans that the training of master craftsmen in the Free State will soon be free of charge – unlike the rest of the Federal Republic at the moment. Söder presented his intentions on Wednesday in Kloster Banz, where the CSU leader put his party’s state parliamentarians in the mood for the Bavarian elections this fall. You want to “advertise everywhere” to become a teacher in the Free State, said Söder. And this effort to “openly represent”.

The poaching offensive is part of a larger plan with which Söder wants to counter the shortage of teachers in his country. In order to make the profession more attractive again for Bavarian teachers, in future they should only be used close to where they live if they request it. Although the teachers can now state where they would prefer to work, they are often sent to places where the shortage of staff is greatest, for example to Munich. Concern could now grow there that a more liberal line on the question of the place of assignment will only really exacerbate the shortage of teachers. The poaching plans are likely to trigger unrest in the rest of the country, where there is a shortage of staff everywhere.

In addition, Söder wants to introduce a mandatory practical semester for student teachers to fill staff gaps. Such a model already exists in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, an unpaid practical semester is likely to be difficult to reconcile with the many paid part-time jobs that student teachers use to finance their university training. In order to accommodate the students, Söder promises a 29-euro ticket for national local transport. It should come in the 2023/24 winter semester and apply to students of all disciplines as well as to trainees.

The cost of all the measures initially remained open. With regard to the master craftsman, it is about 100 million euros that the Free State has to pay annually in order to make the training free of charge. According to reports, the Bavarian hardship fund, which the state government created during the energy crisis, among other things for companies that are in danger of surviving, is hardly ever used – which means that Söder sees new financing options for his school plans. So far, the Prime Minister had only asked the federal government to offer master craftsman training free of charge again; comparable to a university degree. “It bothers me how little the craft is respected,” said Söder in December. On the other hand, his CSU rejected an application by the FDP for free training in Bavaria in November in the state parliament.

It is an open secret that the pool of teachers in many subjects and types of school is tight and that there is competition across the country – and that many countries would like to trick their educators from others. The President of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) 2022, Schleswig-Holstein’s Head of Department Karin Prien (CDU), said last summer: “The number of young people available for the teaching profession is decreasing”, keyword demographic change. And: “Yes, of course”, there is competition between the countries here as in all areas, said Prien in an interview with Deutschlandfunk. But there is also an agreement “that we will not poach teachers from each other”. “And as soon as someone does that, there’s a lot of stress in the KMK.”

So far, the inner-German struggle has mainly been about countries putting their framework conditions in the shop window, so to speak. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example, has launched a major campaign promoting life and teaching “in the number one holiday destination” – for example with videos of immigrant teachers who can now indulge in hobbies such as kitesurfing on the beach. Some federal states, including Bavaria to date, also traditionally point to the financial advantages of being a civil servant instead of being an employee in the competitive teacher market. For more than a decade, when a lack of staff, especially in scientific subjects, became apparent in many places, there has been a dispute in the nationwide school scene about it – there is a threat of competitive federalism in favor of financially strong countries, it was always said.

What Söder is now apparently aiming for is to hire graduates after university or teachers on duty directly for Bavarian schools. And it’s also financially supported. This will certainly not go unchallenged in other countries. It probably also fits into the picture of this state election year, in which the Prime Minister promised Bavarian interests to have priority. The Free State wants to sue against the state financial equalization: Bavaria paid almost ten billion euros to the other states last year.

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