Revealing the secret of how to “attract” teachers to schools

In its survey this summer, the State Audit Office (VK) concluded that more than 1,000 graduates of pedagogical education programs are prepared in Latvia each year and that 81% of graduates start working in the business. However, 33% of new teachers leave their job within the first five years. To decide how to change the situation, education professionals and representatives of local governments gathered on October 10 in the discussion “How to strengthen the motivation of the teacher to work in the profession organized by the Council of Ministers .

“We can go a step further than “there is a shortage of people, we have to pay high salaries, then they will be there”, go deeper, because each sector has its own details, which create challenges for the special department,” said state administrator Edgars Korchagin, opening the discussion.

The main task of the VC study was to find out if we have a system that ensures the renewal of teachers and if it works effectively, as well as what is the stability of teachers in the profession. The results of the study are based on the results of the survey and reflect the answers of more than 3,000 respondents – pedagogues and future pedagogues – from each municipality, in addition to the SC he personally surveyed in five municipalities .

The numbers are very scary

Maija Āboliņa, a member of the VK council, while presenting the results of the study, confirmed that there are deficiencies in the planning of teacher training,

in change management, professional support and remuneration. In the same way, not only is everything in the school the responsibility of the principal, but the responsibility is shared between the state and the town. Planning is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Science, but everyone should think about the sustainability of teachers in the profession.

VK data is very disturbing. There are 548 schools in Latvia. In 2023, there were 24,000 teachers in Latvia and 50% of them were over 50 years old. 498 science teachers are at retirement age, and another 1,000 of them will soon take a well-deserved rest. Every year, around 1,000 teaching students graduate from Latvian universities, but only 180 science teachers are trained in six years.

There is also a shortage of special education teachers and social pedagogues in schools. And how can it not be scarce, if the number of budget places in these specialties in universities was reduced by 72%, but in 2023 there was not a single budget place for social pedagogue…

Every year, 12% of students drop out of pedagogy studies, 54% of them in the first year. Although 80% of young teachers are encouraged to work in the teaching profession after graduating from university, 33% leave the job within five years. Why?

The first reasons – changes and ignorance about the direction of reforms, the second – lack of material methods, and only the third – salary. In the fourth place is the reputation of the teaching profession and the balance of the workload, followed by the lack of supporters, mobbing, but in some cases too much workload can also be a reason to leave the school.

There is a lack of psychologists and learning advisors in the schools, but during the discussion it became clear that there are schools that do not accept this and prepare learning advisors themselves. However, it is not an incentive to be a learning consultant or learning area coordinator for more than ten euros per month. Not to mention that teachers lack emotional support, and young people lack mentors. 65% of tutoring students start work while studying, incl. 36% already in the first year.

Although the country spends 1.2 million euros a year on the professional development of educators, teachers have indicated that it is mostly spent on teaching something new and not on strengthening their daily needs. There have also been complaints about the quality of teaching. During the discussion, there were examples of teachers who told the school director that a male lecturer in professional development courses taught them how to draw a man, while others learned the Chinese tea ceremony.

State funding for teachers’ salaries is 371 million euros, but when teachers start going to work, they don’t know what they will get, they will only find out in October. Teachers’ salaries are behind the average salary of the public sector, which is 1397 euros. There is a lack of money for teachers’ social insurance – 18.2 million euros are needed to buy insurance policies.

There are sharp discussions about the distribution of teachers’ workload, which is 65%/35%, although “School 2030” expects a distribution of 50%/50%. Workload distribution is not achieved at any time, because teachers recycle workload, they have no choice because they have to fill the required positions, or they want to earn more and so more work.

The reorganization of schools has often happened “on paper”, combining the administrative apparatus, which does not solve the basic problems – the small number of students, there are still combined classes, the costs of maintaining buildings will not decrease , although there are good ones too. examples, for example, Saldus area, find VK. However, in the education sector as a whole, it is largely avoided to consider the costs per pupil or the ratio of pupils to teachers.

The image and reality of the teacher

In the discussion, it was decided that we must more likely give the image of the teacher, because it is rooted in our consciousness, that he will be a person who will work in his profession for the rest of his life Now it is normal to work for a year or two in one job and then change. This is a fact to be reckoned with.

In addition, the time when artificial intelligence enters schools is not far away, and no one knows what the school will be like in 2030. It has been concluded that the teacher’s role in the future will be more of a mentor, a leader, a personality, a person who guides the learning of others.

Igors Grigorjevs, head of the Ogre District Board of Education, reminded that whether a teacher wants to work in a particular school depends on the management of the school, but building, strengthening the management team is currently neglected of the school and the development of the leader’s capacity. Furthermore, the leader’s competence is not clearly defined.

And then you can hire a good, passionate school principal, but he ends up in an environment where he doesn’t have the right to build his own leadership team. In the discussion, examples were given that the headmaster is alone in small schools, that he has half time and that he works without a substitute. In addition, it turns out that when implementing educational reforms, educational administrations “forgot” how to strengthen their capacity.

Dace Namsone, director and principal researcher at the Interdisciplinary Education Innovation Center of the University of Latvia, published her research work this summer. She believes that Latvian schools still have a Soviet school management model, compared to, for example, the Singaporean school model, where schools have a supervisor for 8-10 people who work with staff. It could be a methodologist or a leading mathematician who only works part-time as a teacher, but without changing the management model of the school, this would not be possible.

In addition, in his opinion, a teacher in Latvia has no professional career opportunities – currently he cannot be the head mathematician in a school, then in a town or in the country. “We let a bachelor in the first year to work, but we want results like in Singapore. Will it bring good results? No,” says D. Namsone.

“In order to have a perfect school network, municipalities need 80 million investments,” said Rita Vectirāne, deputy chairperson of the Jelgava City Council, chairperson of the Education and Culture Committee of the Association of Municipalities of Latvia. She also reminded that the demographic data of the past five years will continue and should be reviewed every two or three years.

Oskars Kaulēns, the director of the Cēsu State Gymnasium of the friendly appeal, admitted that he teaches his own teachers and attracts them not only with salary, but also with systematic support. There was a lot of talk about bribery and cheating of teachers, because apparently the state does not know how many pedagogues are needed, if the number of new students admitted is calculated taking into account the data about the graduates of the previous ones. year.

It was also decided that the position of the head of the school is not a comfort of life that you have earned with many years of work, but the intention of the principal is to stand up and support your team.

What must schools be able to change?

D. Namsone is convinced that there must be a clear goal, what we are going for, what we want, and we have this situation in many areas – we do not know what we want , we cannot say what is considered good, we hope for a magic wand, we believe that when the rules of the Cabinet of Ministers are issued, everything will change. According to her, the main thing teachers need to teach children is self-learning skills, because we learn more and more digitally.

The state should dictate how many teachers are needed, as well as work with high school students to “draw” them into the profession, I. Grigorjevs suggested.

“Stop looking at teachers as victims and poor people. As long as we continue with this rhetoric, we will not get new schools,” said O. Kaulens. D. Namsone agreed that the image of the poor woman is like a boomerang and causes great damage.

“Support from school management is important for new teachers. If it wasn’t for him, I would hardly be working at the school for the fourth year,” admitted Danuta Eva Bite, a science teacher at Kandava Karlis Mühlenbach High School.

On the other hand, R. Vectirāne would like to see the dynamics of the development of each child in the school in the future, not only in schools or classes, but in the school as a learning group.