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The many vacancies allow the communes and cantons to get creative. Money plays a big part in this.
In the canton of Zurich alone, there will be a shortage of over 600 teachers for the new school year. The shortage of teachers is not new, but it seems to be particularly pronounced this year. That is why the school communities and cantons sometimes resort to unconventional means.
Pagans with “bounty”
In Heiden in Appenzell Ausserrhoden, unsolicited applications used to be common practice at the elementary school, says school president Hans-Peter Hotz. “Now we have advertised jobs and there is no or no useful application.” This is new for him. There is currently one position open in Heiden. A second position could be filled because the school community is offering a bonus of 1000.- for the placement of a teacher. There was a clue that led to the contract.
Schaffhausen is looking for long-term solutions
“It takes unfamiliar ways to deal with the tense situation,” says Ruth Marxer, head of elementary schools in the education department of the canton of Schaffhausen.
In workshops we want to find out where the shoe pinches.
Workshops should help to identify and eliminate problem areas. The Schaffhausen Department of Education is already aware of some of the problems: too low rates for deputy wages, wage deductions if there is no qualification in individual specialist areas, further training programs.
“Teaching is strict because of all the trimmings,” says a teacher who took part in a canton workshop. “The demands of society take you away from teaching,” the teacher continues.
Rapid bleach «ready for teaching»
In addition to the so-called attractiveness program, which is to be developed in workshops with teachers, headmasters and employees of the teacher training college, teachers without a teaching degree are now also being hired in the canton of Schaffhausen. In an intensive “ready for teaching” course, they are made fit for the classroom.
This is an emergency measure in an emergency situation.
Dagmar Rösler, President of the umbrella organization for teachers in Switzerland, says: “This is an emergency measure in an emergency situation”. Employing people without pedagogical training is not satisfactory, but cannot be avoided in the short term. Other measures are needed in the long term.
Teacher tourism must not be
Rösler does not think that harmonizing wages is the goal, also because of the different living costs in the individual regions: “A certain harmonization, on the other hand, makes sense.” Tourism should be curbed. However, according to Dagmar Rösler, it has been shown that even high wages do not protect against not being able to find teachers.
The directors of education of the cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau, both Appenzell, Graubünden, Zurich, Schwyz and the Principality of Liechtenstein recently agreed on more agreements to prevent such teacher tourism. “We must not compete with each other,” says the President of the EDK-Ost, the Ausserrhoden Education Director Alfred Stricker.
The top Swiss teacher, Dagmar Rösler, doubts whether it would be helpful to ban small jobs and thus distribute the work to fewer people. “There is also a risk that people will be expelled from the school who are now making their contribution but cannot accept a higher workload.”