Vacation Ends, But Teachers Shortage Persists: Saxony-Anhalt Schools Face Continuing Absences

Wednesday is the last day of vacation in Saxony-Anhalt. And also in the new school year there will be many absences due to the lack of teachers. According to the Education and Science Union (GEW), there is still a miserable provision of teaching at general schools in the country. The Ministry of Education dismissed and comforted the schools with vague announcements.

The anticipation lesson introduced by the Ministry of Education has hardly any positive effects on the inadequate provision of lessons, also because the number of students is increasing. “The obligatory anticipation lesson for all teachers must be abolished again urgently,” says Eva Gerth, chairwoman of the GEW Saxony-Anhalt. This measure, introduced ad hoc, is demotivating and raises more problems in practice than it represents an adequate solution to the shortage of teachers.

“The implementation of the anticipatory hour is partly unlawful. For example, advance notice hours that fall on public holidays are not paid. This is a violation of the Continued Remuneration Act. Furthermore, payment is not made monthly, as stipulated in the Working Hours Ordinance, but only at the end of the school year. “As a result, not only do teachers have to work more, they also give their employer and employer a loan because they are ‘technically’ unable to make the payment on time. Interest is then usually due on the credit,” explains Eva Gerth. Here, too, the GEW Sachsen-Anhalt supports teachers who want to sue for their rights in court. In addition, the Ministry of Education is urgently requested to hold talks with the trade unions and associations about examining and measuring the working hours of teachers.

But the Ministry of Education also leaves the schools out in the rain on other points:

• The necessary adjustment of the decree on flexible teaching has been announced for months and is still not available at the beginning of the school year.
• Hours for additional work, such as looking after lateral entrants or teachers in preparatory service, are still not counted.
• Relief for lateral entrants at the beginning of their professional activity is generally rejected.
• The central administration of the school staff’s official laptops still cannot be guaranteed.
• The school career recommendation in class 4 is to be changed, but the schools do not yet know exactly how and what this means for the teachers. The same applies to the planned organizational changes in connection with the Abitur exams.
• Furthermore, the Ministry of Education refers to the multi-professional teams at the schools. However, there are far too few of them. The GEW Sachsen-Anhalt calculates that there are school social workers at only about every second school and not even at every tenth school administration assistant. The 100 announced digital assistants have not yet been fully hired either.
• The very important development of concepts for more intensive cooperation between elementary schools and after-school care centers in the run-up to all-day schools will continue to weigh solely on the shoulders of school management and after-school care centers, in addition to the “normal” work.

In a letter from the Ministry of Education at the beginning of the school year, the schools only had warm words, vague announcements and the ban on the gender asterisk in official letters as the only concrete measure.

“All of this is causing disappointment in the schools,” Gerth continues. “This disappointment will probably not change anything about the current high commitment of my colleagues. But if the Ministry of Education does not finally find substantial solutions to the issues in our education system that have been dragged on for years, the whole thing will lead to even more stress, illness and the dismissal of teachers.