A shortage of teachers in Uecker-Randow: This is how career changers become teachers!

A shortage of teachers in Uecker-Randow: This is how career changers become teachers!

Eggesin, Deutschland - The teacher situation is tense in the Uecker-Randow region. Almost every school lacks teachers, which the state school office in Vorpommern-Greifswald has caused to act. At a recent job exchange at the regional school Ernst Thälmann in Eggesin, school representatives and potential applicants gathered to inform about the teaching profession. Nordkurier reports that Marit Schindler, who from the Greifswald school office, has emphasized the high demand in the region.

The great lack of teachers in Germany

But the lack of teachers is not a local phenomenon. A serious lack of teachers can be determined all over Germany. Statista shows that almost 50% of the new teachers without formal teaching qualification were set in the eastern federal states, such as Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. Forecasts of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) speak of a lack of over 17,400 teachers in 2024, and it is not foreseeable that the situation will improve in the near future.

The secondary levels are particularly affected. The number of students increases, not least due to a baby boom in the 2010s, which predicts an increase of over 9% of the student body by 2035. This leads to an incessant need for new teachers. The reasons for this are diverse: for example, the closure of Corona-related educational gaps or immigration due to international crises, such as the war in Ukraine.

career changer - a necessary solution?

In order to counter this defect, the training of career changers is becoming increasingly important. In the school year 2023/24, 10.5 percent of teachers already teach at general education schools without a recognized teaching examination. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the proportion of cross and side entrants has almost doubled in the past nine years. It is remarkable that in some federal states, such as Saxony-Anhalt, over 50% of the newly hired teachers are career changers.

This development makes it clear that the traditional educational path is not sufficient to meet the increasing demand. Creative solutions are required, also the relaxation of training rules to simplify the entry into the teaching profession, with experts recommending common standards.

So it becomes clear that we all have to work together on a solution to combat the lack of teachers. Whether in Eggesin or elsewhere - the schools need a breath of fresh air and committed educators. The appeal is clear: if you have a good knack for working with children, you should take the chance!