His deputy principal could run an elementary school straight away, says Andreas Fischer. “She’s a top performer, capable, absolutely suitable.” She just doesn’t want to. She knows what additional tasks he has to do as head of the elementary school in Landau an der Isar, says Fischer. It’s not worth it financially. As chairman of the Bavarian School Management Association, he often hears it: too much administration, too little time for design, too little money. No thank you.
The statistics reflect this: Current figures from the Ministry of Education in an answer to a request from the Greens in the state parliament indicate that the head post at elementary and middle schools is less attractive than at Realschulen or Gymnasium: 107 of the 289 vacant headmaster positions at elementary and middle schools were filled by August advertised several times. Only one person applied for each of 137 positions. It was similar in 2021. On the other hand, there were no directorships at secondary schools, grammar schools or vocational schools that were advertised several times. As of September 1, 26 elementary and middle schools out of 2,700 had no boss, one percent. Vice-principals took over the task.
“That’s because of the bad pay,” says Fischer. Small schools in particular are unattractive, and the salary depends on the number of students. At small schools, female principals have to lead fewer students and teachers, but the administrative tasks are identical to large schools. And besides, Corona, digitization and Ukrainian children have to be organized and career changers and students have to be qualified. “It’s a lot of work, but there’s hardly any financial difference to the teachers.” In addition, management of small schools would have to teach more than he did with 460 children and 74 employees. Fischer has eleven lessons a week, while colleagues from smaller locations sometimes teach 25 hours.
“The number of applicants would look very different if we weren’t constantly persuading people,” agrees Simone Fleischmann, President of the Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV). For example, young colleagues who have little experience. But it’s better to be persuaded than to have the emergency option take effect: if a school has no management at all, the longest-serving teacher will be hired. “These colleagues made a conscious decision not to take on a leadership role, and if no one can be found, they are put off and put off.” Until some give up.
In addition, more and more principals are giving up
Both Fischer and Fleischmann confirm that more and more – often dedicated – headteachers are giving up because they no longer want or are unable to do so. There are no current figures, in the 2020/2021 school year 14 of a total of 3717 headmasters had resigned from their posts in Bavaria. 34 have retired from service. According to the Ministry of Education, the reasons are not recorded.
In order to stop this development, the job must become more attractive again, say the associations. They demand freedom and time to be able to create again. However, the shortage of teachers particularly affects primary and secondary schools, every hand is needed in the classroom. According to Fischer, administrative staff specially trained for schools are also needed to relieve the strain. And more money, in general and compared to the teachers.
“It’s so great with A 13, but it annoys me beyond measure that there is no talk of an adjustment for school management,” says Fischer. And that the elementary schools are “again” behind. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had announced that he wanted to relieve headmasters – and after the state elections to also pay elementary and middle school teachers the higher starting salary A 13, starting with middle schools. If the pay of the headmasters is not increased, “we won’t have any more in a year,” says Fleischmann, head of the BLLV. Tailwind comes from Thomas Gehring, vice-president of the state parliament and education expert for the Greens: “Without far-reaching changes, the Minister of Education will drive the elementary and secondary schools up against the wall.” A 13 must be followed by more salaries for school management.
The situation in the Ministry of Education is not seen as dramatic: headmaster positions never remained vacant for long, it was said. The satisfaction of the headmasters is very important, so there is already an hour more management time and more administrative posts. The fact that directors of Realschulen and Gymnasium have to teach even less is also due to the fact that the superordinate school authorities relieve the elementary and middle school management of decisions and work that the directors of Realschulen and Gymnasium do themselves.