Erfurt (dpa/th) - The Association of German Secondary School Teachers has sharply criticized Thuringia's Minister of Education Helmut Holter's ideas for combating the shortage of teachers. The left-wing politician is raving about "a reduction in language skills for prospective teachers and a reduction in quality in teacher training," the association said in a statement on Friday. Association leader Jürgen Böhm said that this is more like an "act of desperation than an idea for the future of education".
He also accused Holter of propagating "uniform schools". Similar criticism, sometimes with the same choice of words, on the concept of school-level teacher training has repeatedly been expressed by the Thuringian CDU parliamentary group in the past.
Left, SPD and Greens want to change teacher training in Thuringia. So far, teachers have been trained according to the type of school - for example, for elementary schools, regular schools or high schools. A draft for a legislative package provides for changing this and training teachers according to school levels in the future. The idea behind this is that these teachers should then be able to be deployed more flexibly where they are needed. The teacher shortage in Thuringia, which has been severe for years, is particularly bad at regular schools.
However, the project is given little chance, Red-Red-Green does not have a majority in the state parliament and the parliamentary groups of the CDU and AfD as well as the parliamentary group of the FDP are against such a reform of teacher training.
In addition, Holter had made further suggestions in the past few weeks in order to get a grip on the recently increased class failure. Among other things, he pleaded for university graduates to be able to take up permanent positions as a side entry, to introduce a dual study program for regular school teachers and to lower the hurdles for teachers from abroad.
"You can't lump teacher training together and you certainly can't just take teachers off the street," said Böhm. Initiatives are needed to attract young people to specific teaching posts. "School must be an attractive place to work - with opportunities for advancement and room for maneuver for young people," the statement said.
