Does the offer work? Photo: Shutterstock
Lower Saxony’s state government wants to improve the situation at schools with several measures. One of them will take effect in the new school year, which starts next Monday. Questions and answers about the situation at schools in the state:
What is the general situation in schools?
Also in Lower Saxony There is a shortage of teachers. The teaching provision is Lower Saxony has been a controversial issue for years. Most recently, this figure was 96.9 percent, which is a slight increase. Depending on the type of school, the figure is higher or lower. At grammar schools, the provision of lessons was almost 100 percent as of August 2023, while at special schools it was only 91.6 percent.
How does the country intend to improve the situation?
The state government wants to counteract this by, among other things, paying teachers more and creating more positions. At the start of the new school year, the salaries of many teachers will be increased, and they will then move into a higher salary group. According to the Ministry of Education, around 35,500 teachers will benefit from this. By comparison, more than 71,000 teachers teach at Lower Saxony’s general education schools.
For full-time employees, the jump means an increase of several hundred euros per month. According to the ministry, it is difficult to give a general answer as to how high the income is. It depends, for example, on whether the teacher is a civil servant or not and receives additional allowances.
In the state budget for the coming year, a total of 2,460 additional positions will be made available in schools in order to provide all teachers who will be working in Lower Saxony complete the preparatory service to be able to make an offer of employment.
Will the number of students increase?
This is to be expected. Around 890,000 pupils are expected to attend Lower Saxony’s general education schools after the summer holidays. This is the forecast of the Ministry of Education in Hanover. This means that the number of pupils is continuing to rise: last school year there were around 877,000 pupils, two years ago just over 868,000 children and young people went to school.
In November, however, the state had forecast a student population of 906,000 for this year. The increase is therefore smaller than expected. Last autumn, the state even expected there to be more than a million students by 2030. The ministry explained that the number this year is likely to be lower than forecast, among other things, by saying that the estimate for refugee schoolchildren has now been revised downwards by around 10,000 compared to the autumn.
Around 81,000 boys and girls are expected to start school as first graders this year. The number, which also depends on whether parents postpone their children’s school enrollment, is therefore at the same level as last year.
How many teaching positions are filled?
Shortly before the start of the new school year, Lower Saxony more than 80 percent of the advertised teaching positions have been filled. As of July 22, according to the Ministry of Education, there were just over 1,200 of 1,467 advertised positions. The ministry spoke of a good figure. They are confident that more positions will be filled in the coming days. The recruitment process will also continue beyond August 1, so that more positions can be filled.
In which types of schools are there fewer teachers?
There is no data available for the new school year. In the past, there were differences depending on the type of school. For example, positions at grammar schools were filled at a higher rate than at secondary schools.
In which subjects are more teachers needed?
There is no information yet for the new school year. In the recent past, teachers for math, science, art, music and IT have been particularly in demand. Things have looked better in German and history, however.
What do unions and opposition parties say before the new school year?
When asked, Stefan Störmer, state chairman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), said that it was not clear how the state government intends to get the situation at schools under control in the medium and long term.
“The positions advertised so far are not enough to compensate for the lack of teaching, even if the quota is fully filled. It is also questionable whether all the positions can be filled at all due to the still tense situation on the applicant market,” said Störmer. He therefore expects the situation to worsen, which could vary from region to region.
CDU parliamentary group leader Sebastian Lechner criticized the fact that, in his view, there are no signs that the situation in schools is improving in the long term. Schools are one of the biggest political problems facing the red-green state government. “Since taking office, Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg has addressed the existing problems in schools, but has not taken any effective measures to solve them.”
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