“A day of joy” should be the first day of school, according to Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (FW). The joy is to be wished for the 130,000 first graders who marched into the elementary school with their school cones on Tuesday. Because behind the scenes there is a lot of crunching. The shortage of teachers is the biggest challenge in the new school year – despite Corona and 30,000 Ukrainian students in Bavaria’s schools. In many schools, staffing is so tight that headmasters are downright afraid to talk to young female teachers. You could be pregnant. “You just hope that it doesn’t hit you,” says an experienced rector from the Oberland. He is not alone in this attitude.
After all, the Minister of Education was able to announce good news for some pregnant teachers and their students on Tuesday after the Council of Ministers: The strict corona-related occupational safety and health will be relaxed. In the future, all pregnant women who want to and whose doctors allow it will be allowed to teach in their classes. So far, there has been a ban on entry for these women. They are not allowed to go to school, i.e. only teach digitally or take on administrative tasks at home. From the point of view of the headmaster, however, this is not compensation. Piazolo is now having the corresponding general decree changed.
He could not say when the new rules will apply. The minister called the new situation an “opportunity for those who want it and for whom it is medically responsible”. The solution to the problem of the shortage of teachers is not to be expected from this. Around 2,900 teachers are currently pregnant, and it is uncertain how many of them want or are allowed to return to school. But when you talk to school principals, you hear again and again from colleagues who want to come but have not been allowed to come.
BLLV complains about dramatic conditions
Overall, Piazolo called the teaching provided at the start of school “solid”. There are regional differences and several hundred contracts are open, but that changes every day. Like at the beginning of every school year. On the other hand, the Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV) had complained about the dramatic conditions in elementary, middle and special schools and named 4,000 missing teachers.
The Minister did not deny that it is particularly tight there this year. But he classified the BLLV numbers as a calculation construct. In January 2020, as the top employer, he instructed teachers at primary, middle and special schools to work more to compensate for the lack of staff in the medium term. “Then the association says they are missing. But they are there and they should teach.” According to Piazolo, these measures would replace 3,500 of the 4,000 teachers named.
It’s common for applicants to drop out on the first day of school because they got a job closer to home or a better offer. “It is the case that the numbers are constantly changing,” said the Minister of Education. However, it would be “dishonest” to give an exact number – also because he does not know it, because the numbers from the primary, middle and special school areas are not reported by the district governments on a daily basis. Piazolo countered this with his own figures: in 2016, 1.68 million girls and boys also learned in Bavaria’s schools, but today there are 7,000 more teaching positions for the same number of children. However, there are also more tasks that tie up teacher hours.
For the vast majority of students, this arithmetic logic should be irrelevant. The state student council was more concerned with whether distance learning was threatening again and how things would continue with corona learning gaps or offers for students with mental health problems. These programs will continue into the new school year, Piazolo said. The top priority for the upcoming school year is “face-to-face teaching and as much normality as possible, with events, school trips and graduation ceremonies”.
There is currently no reason for new corona rules. There is no obligation to wear masks, they are recommended for meeting areas such as corridors. Testing is voluntary, in the first two weeks and at home.