Status: 01/25/2023 07:55 a.m
In many schools there is a lack of teachers, as a survey by the editorial network Germany shows. The German Teachers’ Association paints a much more drastic picture of the lack of staff in the classroom.
There is a massive shortage of teachers in German schools: nationwide, more than 14,000 positions are currently vacant, according to a survey by the editorial network Germany among the ministries of education in all federal states. But according to the German Teachers’ Association, the shortage of staff in the classrooms is even more drastic.
According to figures from the ministries, there are currently 14,341 vacancies for teachers throughout Germany. The lack of teachers is reflected most clearly in North Rhine-Westphalia: Here the ministry counts more than 8,000 vacancies. Schleswig-Holstein follows with more than 2000 missing teachers. In Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin there are more than 800 vacancies each and in Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony there is currently a lack of more than 400 teachers, as the editorial network Germany further reports.
The situation in Hesse is completely different. According to the report, the Ministry of Education there even speaks of an oversupply of available teachers. According to the ministries, there are also enough teaching staff in schools in Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Brandenburg and Bavaria.
Teachers’ association expects up to 40,000 vacancies
But the German Teachers’ Association has serious doubts about the figures from the ministries of education. Association President Heinz-Peter Meidinger even speaks of a “milkmaid bill” and criticizes the fact that the recording is “enormously embellished and tricked”. According to him, there is currently a shortage of between 32,000 and 40,000 teachers nationwide.
In many federal states, hours are cut at the beginning of the school year due to the shortage of teachers, so that the staffing requirements are covered on paper, criticizes Meidinger. In some federal states, parents or other non-educators would also be used as “school helpers” and accounted for in the statistics as teachers.
“Everyday helper”, later retirement and career changer
In fact, according to the editorial network Germany, the ministries of education in North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Berlin stated that they wanted to hire IT and administrative staff or so-called everyday helpers in order to relieve teachers. Saxony-Anhalt is trying to recruit more applicants for apprenticeships via a headhunting agency in Germany and other EU countries. In Baden-Württemberg, a voluntary pedagogical year is intended to relieve schools and attract future teachers.
Baden-Württemberg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Berlin are trying to fill the staffing gaps by having retired teachers return to the classroom for a period of time. In some cases, the federal states also pay bonuses if teachers retire later.
According to the survey, twelve out of 16 federal states also want to make it easier for career changers to enter the teaching profession. A good approach from the point of view of association president Meidinger. However, he also warns that career changers should be “properly requalified” and “not thrown directly into the class”. “Without a three to six month preliminary phase, nothing works,” he emphasizes.