There is a shortage of teachers almost across the country. Much of the crisis is self-inflicted.
More than half of all teachers perceive the integrative training and support as an additional burden.
The summer holidays should be a time of rest and relaxation. But in many Swiss school communities there is currently no sign of relaxation. Shortly before school starts in the large cantons, by no means all teaching posts are filled. The shortage of staff was “blatant”, the Swiss teachers’ association announced at the beginning of the week.
To ensure that no class is left without a teacher on Day 1, several cantons have taken emergency measures. In Zurich, for example, people without recognized diplomas are now allowed to teach. Due to this measure, among other things, there are currently only 40 vacancies in elementary schools across the canton.
Teachers’ associations and trade unions immediately yelped. The job description is increasingly being devalued and the quality of the teaching is at risk. Even today, every tenth teacher in the canton of Berne is not sufficiently qualified for their job. The country’s top teacher, Dagmar Rösler, says something quite dramatically: “If I, as a mother, found out that my daughter was going to an untrained teacher, I wouldn’t be able to sleep well.”
It’s not that drastic, but of course the situation is anything but ideal – neither for the schools nor for the students. Especially children in the lower and middle school need clear reference persons; no constantly rotating training force with a lack of qualifications. It is clear that such a measure may only be taken in acute emergencies and must have an early expiration date.
However, it is too easy to criticize the current fire brigade exercises. The cantons try with all means to extinguish what is on fire. You have to clearly name the mistakes that were made in the past and show which means will help in the long term against the rampant shortage of teachers. Because the phenomenon will keep schools busy for a long time to come: student numbers are constantly high, baby boomer teachers are retiring, and too many of the junior staff, overwhelmed, throw down the beg shortly after taking up their post.
The canton of Geneva is repeatedly mentioned as a role model. There is no shortage of teachers it was said recently on Radio SRF. This is because the teachers at all school levels received roughly the same high wages.
However, increasing financial resources cannot be a panacea. Surveys and experiences in the cantons show that it is not primarily the salary that causes problems for teachers in the country. Teachers’ wages are already comparatively high today – in both Geneva and Zurich.
On behalf of many, a primary school teacher from Schwamendingen recently named the real problem in the NZZ: “I don’t want more wages. It’s about better working conditions.” She has to struggle too much with administrative tasks, the coordination effort with after-school care, school social work and umpteen other positions is now too high. The actual teaching is neglected. There is an urgent need for more focus on the core task of every teacher: the daily work with the students.
The integration of all children into the regular class is difficult for many. In a survey of 10,000 teachers, more than half said they saw integrative training and support as an additional burden. That should be a warning sign. It is time to fundamentally question the cerebral, egalitarian concept and, in the case of problematic constellations, to increasingly rely on small classes again.
Creative solutions are needed so that teachers will work with higher workloads in the future. In Zurich, for example, the average level of employment is less than 70 percent. In the much-praised Geneva it is around ten percent more. However, unlike in other cantons, a minimum workload of 50 percent is also required there. This is probably the real reason why Geneva is doing well compared to others when it comes to teacher shortages.
Instead of such a strict regulation, it could be worth experimenting with a financial incentive system: teachers with higher work hours earn more per hour, those with small work hours less. The FDP recently proposed something similar in the Zurich cantonal parliament. You should at least try it. Because if every teacher in the canton were to give just one more weekly lesson, 1,000 fewer teachers would be needed in one fell swoop.