Teachers are missing everywhere. The result: lessons are canceled and the job becomes more stressful for those who have to fill in the gaps. That makes the work less attractive and there is a lack of young people. The union wants to move and is moving away from previous goals.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Because tens of thousands of teachers are missing and Baden-Württemberg has lost a lot of feathers in the educational studies, the VBE teachers' association is demanding compromises in the training of teachers. Above all, career changers must be given the opportunity to get into the staff room if this is done in a high-quality way. "It is important to say goodbye to the idea that we can only secure lessons with fully trained teachers, unfortunately," said Gerhard Brand, state and federal chairman of the Education and Training Association (VBE). Students would also need more support to prevent them from dropping out of their teacher training course.
"We can bring people to the school relatively quickly using the option of lateral entrants or lateral entrants and compensate for the need for teachers a little," said the head of the association. That doesn't do justice to the profession. "But given the precarious situation, we have to jump over the shadows. It won't work any other way if we don't want to drive the cart into the porridge."
Many federal states have been trying for a number of years to recruit non-traditionally trained teachers for the teaching profession. A lateral entry into the profession is already possible in Baden-Württemberg, but as in other countries there are also high hurdles and numerous restrictions. Among other things, they are only accepted in certain subjects and not in all types of schools. "In view of the situation, we have to open schools for lateral entrants in order to relieve the existing teachers," demanded Brand. So far, this has only been offered at vocational schools and high schools, only in the subjects of physics and computer science and under certain conditions.
"It's not conceptualized enough," said Brand. "In the next ten years we won't be able to provide schools with enough originally trained teachers. And we'll have to endure this shortage for years to come if we don't try to find other ways." He is promoting a Saxon project in which career changers or lateral entrants first prepare for several months at universities before they are trained for three working days at schools and two more days at universities. "This is a project that sounds very good, that can help quickly and bring quality to the schools."
From the point of view of the VBE, lateral entrants are only an adjustment screw that the state has to turn. "We have dropout rates of 35 to 50 percent in our studies, we can't afford that," said Brand. "We have to try to support people when they decide to become a teacher." For example, more tutors, interest-free loans or more student residences are possible. "If we can only keep half of the dropouts, we'll have significantly more staff available relatively quickly," calculated Brand. Together with the well-trained lateral entrants, this is not perfect. "But it will be much better than what we have now."
Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) recently called on the associations not to constantly demand new positions, but to discuss the content. "We can't bake our teachers. We must therefore go back to substantive debates instead of quantitative ones," said the head of government.
Brand denies that. "The number of teachers is the linchpin," he said. "Contents can only be discussed if we have a sufficient number of teachers who can convey this content."
The state government failed to change course in time, although it has been clear for many years that many things in schools can no longer be managed under these conditions. "If I put my car in the workshop and there are only two mechanics, then I quickly get the car botched up or I don't get it back in time," said the VBE state chairman. The challenges, be it in the area of violence in schools, inclusion, all-day care, the overload of teachers and refugees, can be better managed with a sufficient number of teachers.
