Why teachers drop out: "I feel like I've lived in a cave"

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Just quit the service?

That’s a decision.

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Photo: J Walters / Shutterstock

For two years, according to a former teacher, the staff could not use the printer in the staff room - because the colleague who had the password had died. A trainee lawyer quit the school service after his civil service had stood in the way that he should have completed further training. However, this was not approved because he should have already been a civil servant for it. You hear many stories of bureaucratic absurdities when you ask around from teachers who are willing to drop out or who are former teachers. And the corona pandemic has broken the barrel for many: teachers complain about absurd regulations, lack of appreciation and too little political support.

How many of the dissatisfied quit school is not recorded.

Neither at the state nor at the federal level.

One thing is clear: teachers are scarce, many colleges are outdated, and there is even a lack of lateral entrants.

"Dissatisfaction is increasing," says Isabel Probst, herself an ex-teacher who has already advised several hundred teachers full-time on switching to other professional fields.

She used to do this in individual coaching - according to her own statements, she is currently starting a group course with 50 participants.

And the Facebook group »teachers on the wrong track«, which was founded six years ago and in which those willing to leave can network with one another, now has almost 11,000 members.

"I felt like a prisoner of the system"

"It is new that people who have both feet on the civil service are now making fundamental criticism," said Probst. “Many suffer from a lack of opportunities for further development. The core activity has been extremely repetitive for decades. There is little room for personal strengths. And then you see in your personal environment how friends change positions, go to other companies or abroad - but you yourself get stuck in school and cannot change your place of work. "

Patrick B., 43 years old, quit his secure teaching job in the middle of the pandemic. Since this year he has been working as an e-learning consultant. "I wanted to become a teacher even as a schoolboy, then I studied English and French, did my legal clerkship and was a happy teacher for ten years from 2008 to 2018." The doubts began when he went on a trip around the world in a sabbatical year. "Suddenly I got to know people outside of my own bubble, for whom digital, flexible, self-determined work was completely normal," he explains. »I came back and found myself in ailing buildings in which the digital equipment is progressing very slowly and in which far too often teaching was still based on the methods of the previous century.I felt like a prisoner of the system with very few opportunities to influence the framework and the system. "

In job coaching, Patrick B. found out that "for me personally, it was the worst idea of ​​all time to let myself be burned into a rigid system as a civil servant." The changeover was still difficult. “I noticed that the world outside of school wasn't waiting for me. I didn't even know how to apply - I never really had to apply. I wanted to impress with my specialist knowledge, but that came across as arrogant; and it wasn't clear to me that I had earned above average as a teacher. ”In the meantime, he says he earns several thousand euros less a year, but doesn't regret leaving:“ I get anxious when I imagine going back to school. That was a system that didn't see me as an individual. Further development? Nothing.I had to fight for every little advanced training. "Abandoning the security of civil servants especially irritated non-teachers, he says:" The teachers around me all understood it. "

"There is no room for professional training"

In his new job, he initially had the feeling that up until then he had »lived in a cave«, an isolated parallel world: »I had neither learned to use Excel nor Outlook professionally because we didn't need any of that in everyday life - appointments became coordinated by mail or phone call.

Now I live in an agile working environment in which I can change jobs and develop myself further. "

For many, this is crucial, says coach Isabell Probst. »School can only really be managed if different experts pull together. In this country, teachers should do what there are teams of social pedagogues, psychologists, career counselors, administrative staff up to school nurses for in other countries. "And the corona pandemic has taken many teachers" away from the illusion that the school system is in a crisis would develop further «.

Many felt that they were being burned out on the teaching front: "The pay slip is based solely on the lessons, not on increased personal commitment, for example in school development, working groups and projects." But not everyone draws conclusions. Many ignore the serious search for alternatives because they declared themselves hopeless cases. »There is no personal development or dropout advice within the school system. This, too, leads to the fact that some go into internal resignation or, in individual cases, maneuver into user behavior - and leave themselves on sick leave for a long time with full pay, ”says Probst. The school system has few instruments to counter such parasitism - it is the colleagues who have to pay for it.who stick to the bar and have to make up for the absent hours because there is a shortage of staff everywhere. This can also cause frustration. Often, however, there are also personal reasons: "You can't change employers - and you may have a stupid superior for life, because that's exactly who would have to agree to an application for transfer, which is often not granted due to the lack of staff."

Anyone who toying with the exit, however, first comes down hard on the facts. "Leaving the job is a financial decline for almost everyone," explains Probst. Even part-time and in lower career groups, pay is still above average, but many civil servant teachers are not aware of this. As a consultant, I often first have to create a new frame of reference. «Many are not even aware of the degree of their privileges: the fact that they cannot be terminated. The retirement pension is almost twice as high as that of pensions. Private health insurance. Sabbath regulations with return guarantee even after longer breaks. Much lower social security contributions (those who are effectively non-terminable,does not have to protect himself against unemployment) and thus more net than gross. To do without it is already a decision. But, says Probst, the loss of salary is consciously accepted by many ex-teachers for a better quality of life and room for development.

"I miss standing in front of a class"

The former teacher Katja Udolph, 32, a licensed child and adolescent psychotherapist, has not regretted leaving six months ago.

As with many people who switched, a teacher was actually her dream job: "I miss standing in front of a class," she says.

She had taught at a high school and actually wanted to join the school management: "But my personal experiences on the way there ensured that I would rather concentrate fully on my second mainstay, child and adolescent psychotherapy."

Actually, she would have liked to combine both skills at the school. But: »My work experience at school was a brake. With my desire to change something, I kept coming up against my limits. I would have liked to contribute my therapeutic knowledge, but that was not what I wanted. The problem is: the school system does not recognize mental illnesses and sensitivities, but believes it does. It is quickly assumed that a child has ADHD, but that may not be true at all. "

The school system, says the therapist, makes “children mentally ill through pressure to perform”: “There is hardly any supervision.

When the teacher closes the door of the classroom, a lot of nonsense happens behind it without it being noticed - and when you hear how pejoratively children are being talked about in the teachers' room, it can be difficult to endure.

As a therapist, I also partially repair damage caused by the school system. "

Giving up the life-long service, she says, felt like a release to her.

“Now, after six months, I can say: That was the best decision of my life.

I am self-employed, I can really make a difference now, make the lives of children and young people better and am also financially better off than before. "