School started back up in the past two weeks in Germany, and there's some issues that stand out.
ARD (public TV, Channel One) brought up one of these....the lack of teachers.
It's on the minds of parents, school administrators, and even students. There simply aren't enough teachers.
For those who haven't ever examined the system....it's not a federal type system. Each German state (16 of them) has a responsibility to run their own system.
The landscape affected? All of them (elementary schools, special schools and secondary schools).
Students will point out that they are pushed into larger groups because there simply aren't enough teachers around to cover the various subjects.
ARD notes that Berlin (the city-state itself) has the biggest problem, with 1,250 teachers basically missing.
Gimmicks being looked at? Bonuses....some of which are tied to you taking rural jobs, instead of urban teaching positions. In Brandenburg, if you were a retired teacher....they will let you re-enter the system.....keep collecting retirement pay, and get regular pay on top of that.
It's one of these topics that you can figure for the next election (2021)....it'll become a national topic and likely to be thrown around because none of the sixteen states seem able to remedy their own problem.
The problem is that young college kid is looking over the career path and seeing how the treatment is for the first couple of years, and how states 'let' you go at the end of the school-year and it's not guaranteed about job status for the new year.....well....this isn't the kind of occupation that you dream about.
A national solution? No, I just don't see the Bundestag as being some problem-solver in this case. I think most states are going to have to stand up some type of HR-bureau, and consider long-term paths for teachers, with more incentives. I also would suggest that allowing non-teachers to enter into the system (those with science or math degrees) and give them some five-year pathway to gain status.....might be beneficial.
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