Minister Feller Advocates for Everyday Helpers to Assist and Ease Burden on Teachers

The Department of Schools and Education announces:

The Ministry of Schools and Education is continuing to implement the action plan for better teaching. The elementary schools can now start hiring everyday helpers. After the participation of the associations and the cabinet, the necessary ordinances for the measures in the field of teacher training will also come into force. The changes to the decree in the area of ​​teacher recruitment will also be implemented shortly. School and Education Minister Dorothee Feller: “All personnel measures from our action plan are now being implemented. This paves the way for targeted support for our schools. Primary schools are the focus. Among other things, we are expanding the possibilities for lateral entry and creating the conditions for hiring everyday helpers. They are intended to support and relieve teachers at primary schools so that they can concentrate more on their lessons.”

The everyday work of teachers at primary schools is characterized by a large number of activities that go beyond the core activity of teaching. Everyday helpers should offer teachers a noticeable relief and support by taking on various everyday tasks. This can be, for example, preparing the classroom, supervising or supporting individual students in establishing their ability to work. Everyday helpers do not have to prove any formal qualifications. Above all, the suitability for this form of support is decisive. The decision to hire is made by the school administration. The positions are advertised as pay scale positions with a regular weekly working time of a maximum of 30 hours. Everyday helpers are hired to fill vacancies. However, this does not stand in the way of hiring teachers.

In the area of ​​teacher recruitment, the action plan for teaching provision will soon be implemented through changes in the decree.

In the area of ​​teacher training, implementation is by ordinance. The focus is on measures for primary school and vocational college:

• The lateral entry with a part-time two-year preparatory service is opened for teaching at primary schools. Lateral entrants with the appropriate university degrees can thus acquire the full teaching qualification for primary school. That was not possible until now.
• In the future, university graduates for teaching at grammar schools and comprehensive schools will also be able to start their preparatory service for teaching at primary schools or for teaching at Hauptschule, Realschule, secondary and comprehensive schools and acquire the corresponding teaching qualification.
• In future, teachers qualified to teach at grammar schools and comprehensive schools will have the opportunity to be employed permanently at a primary school, even if their teaching qualifications do not represent a subject at primary school.
• The dual master for the technical subjects of the vocational college will be opened up to bachelor graduates from universities and extended to new professional subjects. Participants complete an extra-occupational master’s degree for teaching at vocational colleges. After completing the dual master’s degree, there is an extra-occupational preparatory service.

In addition, the following additional measures will be implemented:

• It should be made easier for teachers from third countries to start teaching. The previously required language level C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ​​is set at level C1 for access to so-called compensatory measures. However, level C2 must still be achieved for permanent adoption.
• In the future, every new appointment of teachers with basic training should be combined with the possibility of being seconded to schools that are particularly affected. The prerequisite is that the seconding main school has a sufficient number of teachers.

The measures listed will come into force on May 1, 2023.

In conclusion, Minister of Education Feller declared: “The action plan for teaching is an important step in providing our schools with targeted support. I am very happy that we managed to initiate all the measures within a quarter of a year and I would like to thank everyone involved. When implementing the action plan, we are primarily focusing on primary schools and schools that are particularly affected by the shortage of teachers. We will closely monitor the implementation of our action plan and are already examining further possible measures.”

In December 2022, the state government presented a comprehensive action plan to improve the provision of lessons with short, medium and long-term measures. The concept includes the areas of teacher training and teacher recruitment, appreciation and relief as well as service law. The official measures of the action plan were already implemented in February 2023.

For inquiries from citizens, please contact: Telephone 0211 5867-40.

For journalistic inquiries, please contact the press office of the Ministry of Schools and Education, telephone 0211 5867-3505.

This press release is also available at www.land.nrw

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