On Monday, schools in Berlin start again. Around the city – and throughout the country – parents are now anxiously waiting for information.
Will little Fritz, Mathilda or Ali have any math, sports and chemistry this year? Or will it be chaos again?
For us Swedes, it might be nice to know that other countries also have problems.
In Berlin, there is a shortage of 1,500 teachers and the city is now trying to convince people to exchange their workplaces for classrooms. Were you previously an insurance salesperson or an influencer – why not try becoming an English teacher?
In Bavaria, there will be a shortage of 4,000 teachers when the school year starts in a few weeks. There, the state government is trying to attract with a starting bonus of over SEK 30,000. But nothing seems to help.
The myth of a well-organized Germany
I have now lived in Berlin for over a decade, and most discussions I have with friends in Sweden involve explaining that Germany is far from as well organized as people seem to think.
How can a country that has two cities named Frankfurt be considered efficient? asked a British journalist on the platform X, in a small post that spread quickly.
But apart from Germany’s penchant for having several different cities with similar names, it’s the schools that constantly remind people that Germany can be frustratingly chaotic.
When I asked a friend how his daughter’s school was, he exclaimed: “School? Which school?” It happened so often that classes were canceled due to teacher shortages, he felt anyway, that the school might as well be shut down altogether.
Germany missed a demographic development
One reason for the problem: Germany missed a demographic development when suddenly more children were born between 2011 and 2016. The number of places in teacher education was not adjusted.
Another problem is that many teachers leave the profession.
It’s stressful, the parents complain and it’s not very well paid, a friend told me. She quit teaching earlier this year and has no plans to start again.
Schools and education are a problem in several countries, and parents in Sweden certainly have a lot to complain about.
So, maybe it’s some small consolation (in a schadenfreude sort of way) that even its big neighbor on the continent – which is so good at building cars and developing technology – has a whole generation of parents anxiously sitting at work waiting for a message:
“Due to a teacher shortage, we are closing the school at 10 a.m. today. Kind regards, your principal”.