How Zurich exacerbated the teacher shortage
The shortage of teachers in the canton of Zurich will become a central campaign issue ahead of the government council elections in February. The candidates of GLP and SP sharply criticize the acting director of education, Silvia Steiner (Tages-Anzeiger/Paywall) – they “didn’t react in time” or “slept through” the problem.
Central politician Steiner is not the only one to blame. But one thing is clear: the government and cantonal councils are consciously willing to accept an aggravation of the staff shortage – and thus a weakening of the elementary school.
The danger had been known for a long time
As early as 2008, the canton administration wrote to 9,000 former teachers to motivate them to return to work. And as early as 2009, the teachers’ umbrella organization publicly warned of an “acute shortage of teachers” throughout German-speaking Switzerland. Measures taken by the Canton of Zurich include career changer training at the University of Education. But the lower entry hurdles alone do not reach anywhere.
As late as March 2016 – and thus already with Silvia Steiner as Director of Education – the Zurich government council namely, in response to a parliamentary question, he expects the number of pupils to increase by around 12% by 2020. And from 2020 to 2025, he predicted another 6% increase. As a result, additional teachers would have to be hired.
Reductions in education as a solution to the shortage of staff
The Government Council followed: “If there are no additional funds available in the medium term for the additional expenses due to the increasing number of students, & measures in the wage area are achieved, the average class size or the number of lessons for the students and reduced students will be increased.” The higher education costs due to the number of students should also be compensated for by a reduction in education.
Nevertheless, the impending personnel crisis was not mentioned in the legislature goals of the Zurich cantonal government for 2015 to 2019. And the report on the legislature 2015 to 2019e does not mention the problem anywhere. Instead, it said: “The explicit goals in the policy area of education have been largely achieved in the legislative period.”
Low tax policy instead of problem solving
The government did not say that this happened with dismantling measures. Tax increases were taboo in the bourgeois-dominated government council. Even under Finance Director Ursula Gut (FDP), balancing the budget with additional income was out of the question. Even if the expenses for investment projects, inner-cantonal financial equalization, hospital financing and BVK rehabilitation were particularly high at the time. The government also relied on reduction measures. In March 2013, when presenting an activated draft budget, Gut dismantling already threatened one in education and health. And sold this as no alternative: “You can’t wash the fur without it getting wet.”
The voters in the canton had nothing against it. In April 2015 they elected five commoners to the governing council. They had all promised not to raise taxes. At the end of June 2015, the new finance director Ernst Stocker (SVP) told the NZZ: “Population growth increases additional costs of around four percent, mainly in health, education, social affairs and public transport. However, the estimated additional tax revenue will only increase by around 1.3 percent.” Now the state should become even more efficient. Under asked: “Will the system collapse if we have one more student per class?”
Overworked teachers still kidding
In September 2015, he ordered a cuts program he called a performance review. The elementary school had 20 million less available annually. She got off lightly with it. Only: For the Zurich teachers, the tight finances were already at this point. In the fall of 2015, they sued in a survey by their association already informed about the savings measures in the communities. The already excessive burden on teachers continues to increase. “With corresponding consequences for the attractiveness of the profession”.
Your new education director Silvia Steiner said SRF but in January 2016: “You have to see the whole austerity round as an opportunity.” It turned out, however, that the scope for savings was small. Passing on the Steiner services actually carried out by the canton to the municipalities. First they wanted to shift the salaries of the principals to the communities, huh later failed due to resistance from the communities. Then the same thing happens with German courses, which the canton no longer takes on – allegedly because the education department does not take on any integration tasks. In January 2017, she said in one Interview in the NZZ on Sunday nevertheless, the reading difficulties of many students can be traced back to their migration background. There is a lot of work to be done there. “We’ve been there for a long time.” Overall, she seemed to want to convey the impression that cuts in education could be made without compromising quality.
For many teachers, however, this was difficult to understand. They were already overworked and upset by this point. With the ongoing debate about the impending shortage of teachers, their working conditions had deteriorated noticeably. From 2008 to 2010, the Zurich Education Council analyzed the stress on teachers. The project team came to the conclusion that class teachers in particular needed to be relieved emotionally. But effective measures were missing when the project ended in 2014. In particular, the secondary school teachers were “extremely disappointed”. Her conclusion is: “A lot of effort, empty promises, no relief”.
Administrative reform as wage reduction measure
It also sounded like four years later. In 2017, the Zurich teachers initiated a new official professional order (nBA). The project, launched by SP education director Regine Aeppli, was debated for years and also sold as a relief measure. But the “cost-neutral” administrative reform decided against the background of strained canton finances achieved the opposite. They finally led to further bureaucratization of the school and to wage losses and overburdening of the teachers.
And this of all things with a further increasing shortage of teachers. The President of SekZH told the Tages-Anzeiger 2018 when already over 10 percent of teachers at his level were not fully qualified: “Measuring teaching in this way takes away any individuality from the teachers. The job brings more unrest than relief.” A teacher teaches as part of a survey in which over 3500 teachers took part: “This is a big scam and a pure savings exercise”.
One written a year ago and only published last March evaluation report the teachers confirmed the new professional assignment. In their clear reaction, the cantonal professional associations once again sounded the alarm and place In her statement, she made a clear connection to the rampant personnel crisis: “Extrapolated over a year, every teacher has around eight weeks of unpaid overtime on average (around 340 hours of free work with a 100 percent workload). As a reaction, many teachers reduce their workload. In 2019, only 20 percent of teachers are still working full-time.” Christian Hugi, President of the ZLV Zurich Teachers’ Association, demanded: “Now it is up to politicians to make these time resources available with great urgency.”
Union and professional associations are putting pressure on…
In addition to this documented criticism of the job, concrete demands are now being made to improve working conditions. At the forefront: the teachers’ union VPOD. It has over 2,000 members in the canton of Zurich, which it says has been increasing for years. With a specific campaign has been drawing her attention to its weaknesses since the new professional order came into force. As early as 2018, the union will also submit one petition with over 6000 signatures from teachers from all over Switzerland who demanded: Let’s teach again!
In the current issue of the magazine “Bildungspolitik” calls for the union concrete measures now. The big demands are: flat rate increase for class teachers, increase in the lesson factor (the annual working time counted per lesson in the timetable), relief from administrative tasks and the return of the old-age relief. These measures will soon be discussed in the Zurich Cantonal Council. But not all advances have a good chance, some are signed by only one party. In addition, the government can take two years to implement it if it is accepted.
When asked by Infosperber, the education department describes the assessment of the new professional assignment as “very inconsistent”. In the first half of 2023, they will submit proposed changes for consultation. After that, based on the responses to the consultation, the adjustments would be worked out for the attention of the cantonal council. It will also take some time before anything changes in the job.
… The government council will cut taxes further
That shouldn’t be enough for the professional associations. At the beginning of school she demands Furthermore: “Measures to make the teaching profession attractive again.” In order to tackle the personnel crisis, the left in the canton of Zurich therefore wants more money quickly. SP government candidate Priska Seiler Graf said the NZZ Recently, the elementary school in the canton of Zurich desperately needed more resources.
However, it is highly uncertain whether she will receive this. The canton’s finances are doing well. But instead of additional spending on education, Finance Director Stocker has so far provided more tax cuts in prospect. And the education director recently said: “We will probably have to remain flexible for a few more years.”
Subject-related interest of the author
No
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Opinions in articles on Infosperber correspond to the personal assessments of the author.