Teacher Shortage: Facts, Reasons and Solutions

There are currently more than 3,300 vacant teaching positions in schools in Germany – and the trend is ongoing: Experts predict a big boom in children that will make classrooms even more crowded in the future. But let’s start at the beginning first. Why is there a shortage of teachers in a student-rich country like Germany and how should we deal with it?

Figures on the teacher shortage

The Süddeutsche Zeitung had already announced in 2017 that there were at least 3,300 vacant teaching positions across Germany. The greatest shortage is in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most densely populated federal state, with around 2,140 vacancies for teachers.

But not only North Rhine-Westphalia is affected: In an announcement by Senator for Education Sandra Scheeres, Der Spiegel reported that there   were 1,250 missing teachers in Berlin alone. In other federal states, the situation is by no means better: In Bavaria, for example, according to the GEW, the trade union for education and science, there is a shortage of around 400 primary and secondary school teachers.

Reasons for the missing teachers

But how could such dramatic figures come about? Education ministers agree that the main reason for this is the increasing number of births, i.e. the associated increase in the number of pupils, and the high retirement rates of teachers. In addition, since 2015, there have been thousands of refugee children who also need a place in the classroom. Bayerischer Rundfunk reports  that in 2015 more than 30,000 pupils with a refugee background went to school in Germany and 6,100 of them alone were initially learning German in separate transition classes – teachers are also needed for this, of course.

Lateral entrants as substitute teachers

Of course, finding a quick and equally effective solution to this enormous problem is anything but easy. One approach is now seen as hiring specialists who are experts in the field – for example, have studied chemistry – but have not had any pedagogical training. In Saxony, this career path applies to more than half of the newly hired “teachers”, in Berlin there are already more than a thousand employees without teacher training.

Marlis Tepe, chairwoman of the GEW, supports this decision and calls for crash courses that should turn career changers into teachers in no time:

“In the short term you have to take extra measures. Colleagues without teacher training need at least a crash course of several weeks beforehand in order to adapt to the pedagogical task. […] Lateral entrants should be colleagues who have either studied psychology or childhood education and then have to develop the professional qualifications for teaching on the job.”

Pensioners are reinstated

However, Tepe also emphasizes that after such a crash course comes the biggest challenge: possibly breaking down highly scientific topics to elementary school level – without didactic training. In addition to career changers, former retirees are also being rehired to counter the shortage of teachers.

Students and university dropouts are also knocked on the door: according to the motto “Teaching instead of waiters”, a Berlin program lures students to teach at schools while they are still studying as substitute teachers. Such replacement measures in the form of half-yearly or annual contracts already exist in North Rhine-Westphalia.

expand study places

Thuringia’s education minister, Helmut Holter, is responding to the teacher shortage with a different solution: he wants to reform teacher training. According to this, courses of study should soon no longer be categorized into primary, secondary and high school teachers – but according to age groups. In practice, this means that there should be middle school teachers who can teach at virtually any school that represents this age group.

In addition, more study places are to be created so that more teachers can follow in the coming years. In North Rhine-Westphalia there will be around 340 new primary school teaching positions from the 2018 winter semester. This means that 2,200 study places will be available from this winter semester 2018.

Students fear for their education

Even students themselves suffer from the many missed lessons. They fear disadvantages that could affect their future, since little teaching means little learning . The students also think about later applications and simply knowledge gaps that can only be made up with difficulty.

What’s next?

In view of this, the question arises as to what situation we can expect in the coming years. A Bertelsmann study has recently revealed that by 2025 around 35,000 apprenticeship positions will remain unfilled. This is a more than frightening result for the education system.

Adjust study conditions

One solution could be to reconsider current study plans. The experiences of current students show again and again that learning requirements, for example in mathematics or in relation to foreign languages , miss the actually relevant topics on practice-oriented timetables. For many students, the unrealistic learning content of their studies is therefore the reason for dropping out.

At this point it should be questioned whether the course content should be reconsidered in order to adapt it more specifically to the type of school to be taught. Later students would also benefit from this, since teachers could respond more explicitly to the needs of their students through more practical training. Restricting the course content would make it easier for teachers to start their careers, but should later offer the option of attending additional further training and acquiring additional qualifications in the future and if necessary.