Dear all, last week the media suddenly reported: “Only 60 per cent of 15-year-olds in Germany achieve the minimum standard in reading and maths. This puts Germany in 34th place out of 41 countries with comparable education data.” A reader wrote to us directly about this and has now given us an interview, because things are simply going terribly wrong at her son’s school and proper education is hardly a possibility.
Dear reader, you say that your son is hardly receiving any meaningful lessons. How did this come about?
Many teachers are off sick, have to help out in other classes or, like our class teacher, accompany all the skiing trips or exchange programmes because he is the only teacher who has no family, teaches English and Spanish, and can ski.
What does that mean in practical terms for your son’s timetable?
In practical terms, it means at least one or two lessons cancelled every week, sometimes even more. Or acting as a class supervisor, which isn’t much use to the children, as these are usually not subject teachers and they wouldn’t be able to help with any questions.
What exactly does ‘supervising the class’ mean?
Teachers who are teaching in another class have to give our class assignments that they have previously received from the absent teachers. However, these teachers simply leave the assignments there and then go back to their own class.
If the children then have questions on the topic, these cannot be answered directly, as there is no contact person or supervisor present. If things go well, the teacher who handed out the tasks only has to supervise the other class as well; then they can move between the two classes and answer questions now and then.
They are even luckier if the teacher specialises in the subject currently being covered; then they might also receive a subject-specific answer and won’t have to work together to figure out how to solve the puzzle.
Are assessments still required?
Of course! Homework has to be done, obviously. It doesn’t matter whether the teacher was there or not.
Have you parents ever asked about this?
Sure. At the parents’ council meeting, we were told that many teachers are on long-term sick leave, but keep submitting new short-term sick notes one after the other, so that this cannot be covered by a long-term supply teacher. And the remaining teachers are running on empty.
Where do you think the high sickness absence rate among teaching staff comes from?
I suspect it’s down to common illnesses, looking after their own children, but also burnout. The demands are high.
How could the problem be solved? Do you perhaps have any ideas?
I’m on the church council. Our vicar was off sick for weeks, and normally the vicars here always cover for one another. But if it goes on for longer, this cover can no longer be managed. Now we have a vicar who is solely responsible for cover duties. For a specific district, of course. There ought to be something like that for teachers too.
What would you like to see for your son in particular, but also for the German education system in general?
I would like to see more attention paid to the children again. Our class always has 30+ children. That’s simply too many.
Unfortunately, my son is constantly ill, sometimes for quite a while. But he has never been given any materials. I mention it time and time again, and the teachers have repeatedly promised me that things would improve. For some time now, the worksheets have been uploaded to Teams, now that he is about to leave school.
But I get the feeling other parents don’t really care either. I’ve asked so often if I could borrow a workbook or have photos taken. Never – nothing ever came of it. So I sometimes wonder why that is; we’re all in the same boat, after all.
