»This newsletter only contains good news!«, the German school portal boasted on Wednesday when it presented the winners of the German School Prize: Five schools that prove that a good education is possible.
("That's going on")
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced at the award ceremony that the award winners were role models for other schools, "how every student can be reached with good teaching."
Yes, yes, with committed schools, good teaching works even under adverse conditions, could be the subtext of the Chancellor's words.
At least that's what the Education and Training Association (VBE) anticipated.
In view of the award ceremony, he warned those responsible in politics "to obscure the view of the desolate situation in the schools" and to suggest that everything would only be half as bad if the teachers only wanted to.
So that's it for the good news.
We have arrived in a "decade of emergency care", according to the VBE, based on the decade of educational opportunities proclaimed by the federal government.
The union is not alone in its brass.
"We're right in the middle of the education catastrophe and it's getting worse and worse," said Christoph Rabbow, state chairman of the Philologists' Association (PHVN) in Hanover last week.
Sure, in Lower Saxony there will be elections at the weekend.
("That's going on")
But parents from other federal states are also increasingly reporting to us that lessons are being canceled at their children's schools.
(Debate of the week) Satire formats gratefully take up the topic.
"School is now taking place again without masks, without tests and - without teachers," joked Extra3 magazine at the start of school after the summer holidays.
Today's show followed up in mid-September - and for its report dug out a several-year-old excerpt from breakfast television, in which a career changer says: »I gave English lessons in this class for six months - although I don't speak any English at all.«
Sometimes just laughing helps.
So I can still say goodbye to you in a good mood.
If there are any problems, you are welcome to contact us: bildung@spiegel.de
Best regards
Swantje Unterberg
for the SPIEGEL education team
That's going on
1. Practically good
The jury praised the "high professional level" and a strong connection to everyday life: The Regional Vocational Training Center Müritz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania received the main prize of the German School Prize because of its excellent practical relevance.
Anyone who wants to delve deeper and be inspired by the five award winners will find detailed portraits of the "best practice" schools on the school award portal.
2. Wrangling over “hot spot schools”
More than 4,000 schools "with a high proportion of socially disadvantaged students" are to receive extra funding in order to "further develop schools, lessons and learning opportunities and to promote extracurricular cooperation," according to the traffic light parties in their coalition agreement.
Which schools will be included in the selected 4000 and what criteria will apply?
When can the schools start counting on the money?
And do the political leaders in the federal and state governments manage to agree on the distribution?
My colleagues Silke Fokken and Miriam Olbrisch investigated these questions.
3. Education policy in the election campaign
It is the last state election this year: this weekend there will be elections in Lower Saxony.
The "taz" analyzes the role played by education policy in the election campaign.
"It's remarkable how small this topic has become," writes the author.
She notes that the fundamental debates, such as the multi-tier school system and the preservation of the special needs school, which we also reported on a few weeks ago, are being overshadowed by the teacher shortage.
And otherwise?
Inflation, recession, deflation - who exactly understands these ubiquitous terms?
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) advocates anchoring the topic of economics more firmly in school lessons.
Despite the responsibility of the federal states, Germany must find ways to “elevate the topic of business and economic education in the curricula across the board,” said Habeck last week at an event organized by the Alliance for Economic Education in Germany (BÖB).
The »FAZ« had previously reported that almost every second young person does not know what inflation is.
There it says that Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is also alarmed by such survey results.
The "FAZ" colleague therefore demanded in her comment before Habeck: Pupils had to learn more about economics.
number of the week
62
Parents usually have to make smartphones, tablets and the like available privately for use in the classroom.
This is the result of a representative parent survey on the digitization of school lessons, which was commissioned by the D21 initiative.
According to this, 72 percent of parents report that their children have a smartphone available in class - but only 10 percent state that the devices are provided by the school.
You can find the entire study with additional data on tablets and smartboards, WiFi connection and parental satisfaction here.
debate of the week
»At Ikea in the ball pool the support is better«
»Dear students, dear parents!
Unfortunately, several teachers have to be replaced at the moment due to parental leave or illness for a longer period of time,” a Hamburg headmaster recently wrote in a circular.
And went on to explain that externally there was hardly any suitable representation to be found.
As a result, “individual learning groups in the higher grades would have to research and work independently on projects lasting several weeks”.
And: "A few hours will have to be missed."
The Hamburg Chamber of Parents reports that they have heard of similar difficulties from many districts.
"It's only September," says Angelika Bock from the parents' association.
Normally, the cold season doesn't hit until the middle or end of October.
The teachers' unions have also warned against school closures when sick leave is high.
The Hamburg education authority, on the other hand, says that the illness rate among teachers is currently eight percent, which is "not worrying" with human resources of 108 percent.
»Of course there can still be staff shortages at individual locations.«
Inquiries with parent representatives up and down the country make the provision of lessons seem more difficult - even if this can rarely be statistically proven.
"Teacher supply is a huge problem," says Michael Mittelstaedt from the State Parents' Advisory Board of Baden-Württemberg.
The State Parents' Council also sees a problem in Saxony.
In Baden-Württemberg, however, sick leave is not statistically recorded by the ministry; in Saxony, according to the Ministry of Education, it is only available at the end of the year.
Parents' representatives from Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia report that there are no lessons at primary schools, after all, the children have to be reliably supervised.
But there aren't necessarily lessons.
"At Ikea in the ball pool, the care is better," says Volkmar Heitmann from the State Parents' Advisory Board in Hesse succinctly about the situation that he can observe in some districts at elementary schools.
The parents' representatives in Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria, on the other hand, report that the high level of sickness and the lack of staff are currently having an impact, especially in the daycare centers - but in a few weeks, they are sure, the problem will reach the schools.
The greater the shortage of staff in the schools, the more urgently newly trained colleagues are expected.
As reported by the Federal Statistical Office on the occasion of tomorrow's World Teachers' Day (every year on October 5), more students have recently completed a teaching degree, but still fewer than ten years ago.
According to this, around 28,900 student teachers passed their final master’s or first state examinations last year.
That was 3.8 percent more trainee teachers than in the first Corona year 2020. In a ten-year comparison, however, the number of graduate teachers with a master’s degree or the 1st state examination has decreased significantly: by 13.8 percent.
Do you, dear parents and students, get letters like the one from Hamburg quoted above?
Tell us about it.
And do you, dear principals, have little choice but to inform the school community about such unpleasant facts?
How do you deal with the shortage?
We would be pleased if you write to us at bildung@spiegel.de,
We say goodbye until next time, the newsletter will be published again on October 18th.
The "Little Break" team thanks you for your interest!