SPD Education Minister Britta Ernst (61) (archive photo) Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From the BZ editorial team
Shortage of teachers in Germany! In order to avoid a four-day week for schools, Brandenburg’s Education Minister Britta Ernst (61, SPD) wants to take emergency measures for school lessons, some of which are controversial.
Ernst (wife of Chancellor Olaf Scholz) wants, among other things, that students learn by the hour without a teacher (“self-learning times”). Other classes will alternately learn from home and be taught by online teachers (“hybrid classes”).
The minister admitted that it would not be possible to recruit the 1,800 new teachers needed by the next school year. Therefore, 200 positions in the budget for temporary workers (“school assistants and school social workers”) are to be rededicated.
In addition, classes would be merged in an emergency, doubling the number of students per teacher, she told the “Märkische Allgemeine”.
An extension of the compulsory hours for teachers (currently a maximum of 27 hours/week) is not planned. However, older teachers should be encouraged not to retire early. Ernst: “I also appeal to the teacher’s ethos.”