In eastern Germany, four federal states are already luring teachers with allowances to schools in remote areas; Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony plan such financial incentives. This has resulted in a SPIEGEL survey in all 13 area countries.
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According to them, the highest allowance will be paid to trainees in Saxony: since 1 August, they will receive EUR 1,000 in addition to their basic salary of EUR 1500 - provided they serve outside the metropolitan areas of Leipzig and Dresden and then teach at a school in the countryside for at least five years , Even finished teachers can get there up to 600 euros more a month.
In Brandenburg, teachers in Brandenburg receive an additional 300 euros a month in "demand regions". Mecklenburg-Vorpommern offers applicants for hard-to-fill positions - in the countryside, but also in the city - in exceptional cases, the classification into a higher level of experience. Saxony-Anhalt practices a similar model, the improvement can make up to 500 euros gross per month in individual cases.
Schleswig-Holstein's state government wants to pay clerks at some schools on the west coast in future 250 euros gross additional. Niedersachsen is considering an "area premium" for secondary school teachers in five model regions suffering from a chronic lack of applicants.
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In North Rhine-Westphalia, such measures are still being discussed. Not everyone thinks that's good. "We have a lot of teachers in rural areas who have been working under difficult conditions for years," says Christian Hoffmann, trade union secretary of the Union for Education and Science (GEW) in Lower Saxony. "If a new colleague receives an allowance for the same job, that is unjust." He advocates that financially improve the established teachers.
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