Profession
Study: Primary school teachers often overloaded
According to a survey, many primary school teachers feel overloaded. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
The work of primary school teachers is important. But the general conditions are not optimal, as a survey shows.
According to a survey, many primary school teachers feel overloaded and miss work Appreciation. This emerges from the information provided by the 252 German teachers who taught the approximately 4,600 primary school children whose reading skills were examined in the international Igloo study.
Accordingly, 45 percent of those surveyed nationwide said they felt overworked and often exhausted at school. As the analysis published by the Institute for School Development Research (IFS) at the University of Dortmund showed, 38 percent perceived a lack of appreciation. Nevertheless, 71 percent of teachers said that they consider their work meaningful and important.
“The overall high level of job satisfaction is an important message with a view to attracting young people to study teaching and the teaching profession,” said the Executive Director of the IFS, Nele McElvany, according to the statement. However, the reported overload and lack of appreciation are “serious findings”. Teachers needed the right framework conditions to convey basic skills in the best possible way.
However, only about half of the 4,600 fourth graders whose reading performance was tested in the Igloo study were taught by German teachers who focused on reading didactics, as the IFS data shows. “Other aspects such as theories of reading or methods for measuring reading skills were only presented to the majority as an overview or introduction,” it said with regard to the training. The international primary school reading study (Igloo) by the IFS Dortmund published in May showed that 25 percent of fourth graders cannot read properly and cannot understand texts well enough.