The OECD Education Director Andreas Schleicher calls for reforms in the German school system to make the teaching profession more attractive. But that doesn’t mean more salary, he told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”.
“Teachers in Germany earn enough money. Financially, the job here is very attractive, also and especially in international comparison.” But even a well-paid, secure civil servant job no longer attracts people if the working conditions are otherwise not right, said the expert from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Schleicher: The shortage of teachers in Germany is homemade
Schleicher continued: “The teaching profession in Germany is intellectually too unattractive, and the teachers have far too few opportunities to do what they actually went into the profession for: namely, to help young people to find their way, and they to accompany you on this path.” His conclusion: “The shortage of teachers in Germany is homemade. A lot has to change.”
Now German schools often resembled a fast food restaurant. “The students are often just consumers who are served the learning material. The teachers are service providers who are supposed to heat up the pre-prepared food and hand it over. Parents are customers who occasionally complain if something is wrong. These processes frustrate everyone.” Instead, teachers need the freedom to develop their own ideas and try out creative teaching concepts. “They need opportunities for exchange and for working together in a team.”
