Teacher shortage and Ukraine war characterize the start of school in 2022
The new school year begins on Monday in 15 cantons. The start is marked by an acute shortage of teachers.
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the essentials in brief
- Many cantons are struggling with a teacher shortage when school starts.
- Many schools hire required aids without the appropriate diploma.
- In addition, the number of students is increasing in many places.
The new school year begins in 15 cantons on Monday. It is characterized by the acute shortage of teachers and the integration of children from Ukraine. Especially in German-speaking Switzerland, it is only possible thanks to temporary workers without a teaching diploma. In addition, the number of students is increasing.
In the canton of Aargau, for example, where school started on August 8, more than 80,000 children are going to school for the first time in the new year. That is around ten percent more than six years ago.
In the canton of Thurgau, a total of 31,300 children and young people from kindergarten to secondary school will be making their way to school next Monday. This means that the number of girls and pupils there has grown by 2.2 percent compared to the previous year. There are also around 500 temporarily admitted children and young people from Ukraine. This results in overall growth of four percent in the eastern Swiss canton.
On August 22, 31,500 children in the canton of Zurich will be going to kindergarten or school for the first time. According to cantonal education statistics, around 4,500 more children go to elementary school than a year ago, a total of around 157,500.
Employed by people without a relevant diploma
In many places, workloads are increased or people without the appropriate qualifications are hired. Every tenth teacher in the canton of Bern, for example, does not have the appropriate ID when they start school. The extension of the concept of class help to all levels of elementary school should bring some relief. In addition, teachers should be relieved of administrative tasks.
The canton of Zurich, where school, like in many cantons in French-speaking Switzerland, does not start again until August 22nd, has hired hundreds of temporary teachers in need. As an exception, people who do not have a teaching diploma may also teach in this school year.
The situation in the canton of Neuchâtel is more relaxed. Despite the tense situation, there is no shortage of teachers there. A shortage was already foreseen there in the early 2000s and the number of students at the teacher training college increased.
As the number of students increases, the number of teachers decreases. Teachers of the baby boomer generation are approaching retirement age one after the other, and at the same time there are problems with the next generation, even if the training figures are actually desirable according to the teachers’ association.
umbrella organization raises the alarm
However, many aspirants throw down the begging shortly after taking up the position because they feel overwhelmed by all the demands that they can fulfill in addition to their actual teaching assignment &: too many administrative tasks, many agreements with other school-related institutions, integration from ever more children with behavioral problems.
In view of this initial situation, almost all cantons have to fall back on insufficiently qualified staff in order to at least partially fill the gaps. A Swiss teacher put it in a nutshell in a recent interview with the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”: “My core business would be to teach the children something. Sometimes I can hardly do it.”
The umbrella organization of teachers in Switzerland (LCH) also sounded the alarm at the beginning of the week shortly before school started. The teacher shortage is “worse than ever”. Due to the lack of staff, the schools in Switzerland increasingly looked after the children instead of educating them. However, unqualified teachers tended to experience an additional burden rather than a relief.
LCH President Dagmar Rösler, who is responsible for education, accused the cantons of idly watching the demographic development: Many teachers in the baby boom years are reaching retirement age, the number of students is increasing – that was foreseeable. In addition, the integration of children from Ukraine makes the situation more difficult.
Canton can decide for itself
At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, the conference of cantonal directors of education (EDK) wrote that it had no political mandate in connection with the shortage of teachers. If one thinks they refrain from assessing the criticism of the teachers’ associations.
Recruitment, checking the employment requirements, remuneration and supportive measures are a matter for the individual cantons. In its statement, however, the EDK notes that the employment conditions for teachers have improved in several cantons in recent years.
The cantons have also done a lot to get people interested in the teaching profession. They would have launched corresponding campaigns or developed courses for career changers. With the further development of the right to recognize diplomas, the EDK has also made a contribution to recruiting teachers.
According to the Education Report 2018, the problem of the teacher shortage would be solved if all teachers increased their workload by ten percent. However, experts do not consider this to be practicable, as is the mandatory minimum wage, such as in the canton of Geneva.
According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), 44 percent of teachers work part-time between 50 and 89 percent, a good 28 percent less than 50 percent. In this context, people are talking about «flight into leisure time because of the cascade of reforms and bureaucratisation».
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