Schleswig-Holstein: Parents fight for more teaching positions for savings plans!

Schleswig-Holstein: Parents fight for more teaching positions for savings plans!

In Schleswig-Holstein, the state government promotes turbulent times for pupils and parents: In order to relieve the budgetary situation, 163 teaching positions are canceled. This is done before the background of rising number of students, which this year increases to around 372,000 in the 794 public schools, which means an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the previous year. Minister of Education Karin Prien (CDU) defends the measure with the indication that this is only 0.68 percent of the available 24,065 teaching positions and that the quality of the lesson should not be impaired. But reality looks different, as the Schleswig-Holstein Philologists Association warns.

The situation in schools is tense. The association emphasizes that teachers are often overloaded and that there are increasingly lack of teaching. Parental unrest is growing: A petition from Bad Segeberg already collected over 2,500 signatures to demand 400 new teaching positions. According to Stefan Stahl, a father, the situation is alarming: "The situation has intensified dramatically," he reports on unusual English lessons and a lack of teachers. NDR reported about the concern of students and parents.

classes bigger, support smaller?

The changes also mean that students with a migration background, whose proportion in schools are now 19.4 percent, require increasing support. Kirsten Schmöckel from the Philologists' Association says that teachers do not have enough time to take care of all students appropriately. "It will be difficult," she says. One student representative brings up another point: in many schools, up to ten percent of classes are without teachers, which endangers the progress of learning. This illustrates the worrying reality in the Schleswig-Holstein education system and focuses on the pressing questions about the offer of teachers and teaching care. Additional information from Schleswig-Holstein examine the school statistics that reflect the growing challenges in the teacher.