Lack of staff in schools: substitute teachers as a beacon of hope

The new school year begins and teachers are missing everywhere. There is a lack of trained educators, especially in problem districts. Can substitute teachers be a solution?

Fabian Theiss is the headmaster at a comprehensive school in Duisburg. His job is one thing above all: shortage management. Because for the more than 1000 students, five teachers were missing in the last school year.

At the beginning of the summer holidays, they said goodbye to six other colleagues who were retiring at the school. However, they have not yet found anyone in Duisburg to fill the eleven vacancies. This tears a hole in the lesson plan.

“We are now missing 275 teaching hours per week in the timetable. And nobody is sick and nobody is pregnant,” says Theiss. Because the work is shared among fewer shoulders, the burden on the existing teachers increases. And more pressure tends to lead to even more sick leave, says Theiss.

There is a shortage of teachers everywhere in Germany

The principal is not alone with the problem. In North Rhine-Westphalia, around 4,400 teaching positions are vacant. Maths and natural sciences traditionally have the largest share, because here the private sector often attracts with better salaries than schools.

The situation is also bad in other states. In Berlin, a third of the advertised positions were still vacant at the start of the school year. A further third could be filled with lateral entrants, overall only one third of the vacancies are filled by fully trained teachers. And the problem is likely to get worse in the future. According to a forecast by the Conference of Ministers of Education, there will be a shortage of around 23,800 teachers in Germany by 2035.

Trained teachers avoid problem schools

According to the German Teachers’ Association, there are now more career changers in some teachers’ rooms in Berlin than fully trained teachers. One reason for this: In the last 18 years, no teachers have been employed in Berlin. Those who wanted secure status moved to another federal state.

In addition, many fully qualified teachers often do not want to go to schools in deprived areas or areas with a bad image. Fully trained educators can make a decisive difference, especially where it is not just about imparting knowledge in conflict-free middle-class areas.

Theiss also knows this at the Globus comprehensive school in Duisburg. “Cities like Cologne or Münster are more attractive because of the quality of life and the supposedly fewer problems that occur,” says Theiss.

Above all, the comprehensive school has problems filling the positions for middle and lower school. The length of study for this area is now just as long as for teachers who are also allowed to teach the upper school. But the salary is smaller. The NRW state government has announced that the salaries of the two groups will be adjusted. If that happens, the situation would at least be a little better, Theiss estimates.

Valuable practical experience

In order to be able to fill vacancies more quickly in the future, the comprehensive school in Duisburg tries to retain potential applicants at an early stage. Anyone who works as a substitute teacher while studying at the school has the opportunity to get to know the colleagues and the working atmosphere.

In addition, the students who do the substitute lessons gain valuable practical experience even before their legal clerkship. They cannot completely replace a teacher, as substitute teachers and principals know that. But those who have already got to know the school may come back. Even if there were other offers in Cologne or Münster.

“I’ve just hired a colleague who was previously a substitute teacher with us and who was incredibly happy to come back,” says Theiss.

Like the Globus comprehensive school in Duisburg, more and more schools could do it in the future and look for their staff even before they have completed their training. The growing shortage of teachers speaks for itself.