Every second school teacher in Germany has crossed the half-century mark
The demographic situation in the EU has a direct impact on the school education system. This is indicated by the results of a large-scale study conducted by the European Educational Information Network Eurydice together with Eurostat on behalf of the European Commission. According to the data obtained, the teaching staff in the EU is noticeably aging, and in a number of countries the number of teachers of pre-retirement age has already reached alarming levels. In particular, in Germany almost every second teacher is over 50, which means they will retire within the next 10–15 years.
According to calculations by the head of research programs in education, Professor Klaus Klemm of the University of Duisburg-Essen, by 2020 about 460,000 German teachers will leave the profession, while the influx of young specialists is no more than 26,000 per year. "In other words, the teacher shortage will be about 200,000 people," says Professor Klemm. "And the fact that, according to Eurostat, by that time the number of schoolchildren aged 10 to 14 in EU countries will decrease by 15% gives no reason to hope for even maintaining current education standards, let alone improving them."
"The progressive average age of teachers affects the quality of lessons," believes Stanislav Rangelov, an analyst at Eurydice who participated in the study. "Older teachers use new teaching methods less and themselves need professional retraining."
Largely agreeing with the study's conclusions, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, the chairman of the German Philologists' Association, objects: "Following this logic, it turns out that an older teacher is a worse specialist. You cannot discount professional experience! Although, of course, the age structure of teachers is a big problem. For many young people, choosing the profession of a school teacher is a forced measure. But even with the current shortage of staff, we conduct a strict selection of candidates. The dropout is significant: almost every fifth person is unsuitable for working at school due to insufficient communication skills or personal qualities that do not correspond to this activity."
The phenomenon called "forced measure" by Meidinger had a more precise explanation in a February study by the Munich Ifo Institute for Economic Research. "Losers go into schools" – such a devastating conclusion for the country's education system was made by Ifo scientists, supporting it with the following data: newly minted teachers were, as a rule, mediocre or poor students. Their average grade in the Abitur was 2.5 points, which is worse than that of their classmates – doctors or lawyers, who finished the school course with an average grade of 2.0. Also, new Gymnasium teachers, on average, barely reached a grade of 2.1 points.
European Commissioner for Education Jan Figel sees the problem primarily in the degree of public recognition of the teaching profession. "In a number of countries it is considered not the most attractive," notes Figel. "And in Finland, for example, it enjoys public recognition. As a result, more than half of Finnish teachers are people around the age of 40."
Just a few years ago, Germany could have anticipated the current situation thanks to thousands of young teachers – migrants and immigrants from the former USSR. But most often their Soviet diplomas were not recognized here, and all these specialists were forced to change profession. And now the train has apparently left: skills have been partially lost, and age is no longer the same. It is a pity that the authorities so ineptly managed the available resource.
Sergei DEBRER,
"Russkaya Germaniya"