Education
Teacher Shortage: Association for Big Promotion
Germany has the biggest shortage of teachers in 50 years. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa
Without easing the shortage of teachers, other problems in the German education system can hardly be solved. The President of the German Teachers’ Association says: The profession must become more attractive.
According to the outgoing President of the German Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, the acute shortage of teachers is also slowing down the solution to many other problems in the education system. There are huge challenges, “and of course this teacher shortage is like a leaden blanket that covers everything,” said Meidinger of the German Press Agency.
He referred, for example, to the more than 200,000 Ukrainian children and young people who were admitted to schools, the aftermath of the corona pandemic, poor reading and math results among primary school children and the need for individual support for schoolchildren.
demands on politics
At the same time, the president of the association, despite all the mood of crisis, also campaigned for a positive view of the German education system and the teaching profession on the occasion of the election of his successor. “It can be one of the most beautiful jobs. You get a lot back. It’s a very meaningful, socially important job. And that’s why politicians have the task of making this job attractive again.”
In other countries education is extremely expensive, in Germany it is free. “Well, I would leave the church in the village. In an international comparison, Germany can still keep up well with its school system,” said Meidinger. However, he sees challenges that have not existed to this extent in the past. The teacher shortage is the biggest in 50 years. “And what’s particularly bad, of course, is that there’s no end in sight.” Experts expect the tense situation to continue over the next 10 to 20 years. “Previously phases of teacher shortages and phases of teacher unemployment alternated.”
“Teachers wanted, come to us”
In the short term, it’s a matter of recruiting career changers, relieving teachers of other tasks with more administrative staff, social workers and IT staff, motivating part-time teachers to work again or letting retirees work longer if they want to.
Overall, however, the teaching profession must be made more attractive, modern and challenging in the long term. “So this current practice, I decide on a job and that’s a one-way street. I do the same thing on the first day of my working life as on the last. It’s no longer attractive for young people today. We have to imagine modernizing the job profile .”
The outgoing president of the association also spoke out in favor of a large advertising campaign: “Well, I’m surprised why there isn’t a poster hanging at every school that says ‘Teachers wanted, come to us’ and also makes it clear what a fulfilling it is job. In return, however, politicians would actually have to take measures to make this job attractive again.”