Before the National Council election, the directors’ spokesmen appealed to the parliamentary parties to better support the schools with their challenges. The overabundance of tasks is “not manageable” for a single person. “If action is not taken quickly, the schools will not only lack teachers, but also leadership – with fatal consequences,” warned the spokesman for the BHS directors Wolfgang Bodei in a broadcast.
Exceed healthy levels
As with the teachers, the burden on the directors is already exceeding a healthy level, the directors’ spokespeople emphasized after a meeting with the education spokespeople from the ÖVP, SPÖ, Greens and Neos. There needs to be a national solidarity across all party lines. Instead of regularly presenting schools in the media, they should be systemically involved in finding solutions, demanded AHS director spokeswoman Isabella Zins.
School management at the ready
According to Christine Obermayr, chairwoman of the association of educational leaders at elementary and middle schools, the school management is already at its limit. “All social challenges are reflected in our schools and instead of support we are given more and more tasks.” In view of tasks such as conflict and crisis management, new projects such as digitalization or testing or current challenges from a shortage of teachers to migration, there is less and less time left for pedagogy and relationship management. At elementary and middle schools, the school management has to manage all of this without a secretary; at high schools and BHS there is often a leadership span of 1:50 to 1:100 or more.
In order to improve the situation, the directors’ speakers are calling for staff support and multi-professional school teams, more opportunities for schools to get involved and more cooperation between locations and school types. “Keep the schools out of the election campaign and work together on the basis of facts to improve the framework conditions,” said the school principal’s appeal.
