There have been too few music teachers for decades, but recently the situation has gotten worse, warns Ferdinand Breitschopf, specialist inspector for music in Vienna and ÖMR board member. The situation is particularly precarious at middle schools in Vienna, where there are hardly any lessons by fully trained music educators. He fears “musical illiterate people” as a result.
The shortage has been announced for ten or 15 years. In Vienna and Lower Austria, a quarter of the music lessons were always taught by teachers who had not completed teacher training, but rather professional studies such as instrumental music, musicology or concert studies. “But now we are marching towards 50 percent or more of the people who are starting this year,” Breitschopf told the APA. “This problem has really escalated over the last three years.” There are also bottlenecks in the other federal states. At the beginning of March, an initiative to combat the shortage of music teachers in Upper Austria and Salzburg was launched at the Salzburg Music University Mozarteum.
Too few training places
There are too few training places for music teachers, Breitschopf describes using the example of the north-east region (Vienna, Lower Austria). The change in training for secondary school teachers (middle school, AHS, BMHS) from 2016 also plays a role: Since then, they have been trained together in cross-state associations of universities and universities of teacher education (PH). According to Breitschopf, the north-east region actually needs 80 new students per year so that there are enough music teachers in the long term. In practice, however, there are only 45 places at the Vienna Music University, which has been the only music teacher training institution in Vienna and Lower Austria since 2016.
In addition, according to Breitschopf, because of the diverse job profiles for music educators, only half of the graduates work long-term in school after graduation. “The entire secondary school system – all middle schools, all AHS – in Vienna and Lower Austria must be filled with these people. You can certainly imagine that this doesn’t work with 20 graduates per year.”
“This is a very massive problem”
According to Breitschopf, the situation is particularly precarious at middle schools: Only a few of the graduates who have received a high level of musical training want to go to these locations, which are often less well equipped and where music has a lower value than at AHS. The subject is therefore taught there entirely by teachers without appropriate training. “This is a very massive problem, we then end up with cohorts of musically illiterate people in middle school – and that is not in the spirit of musical education, of Austria as a country of art and culture, nor in the spirit of the socially important social and emotional development of young people. “
Too few music teachers have been trained for years, which has torn a hole in the staffing levels. Because of the poor image of the teaching profession, fewer and fewer trained music teachers are teaching at school. And of those who go to school, a good proportion of them only teach with half a teaching obligation or less because of the diverse job profile.
No “quick boil” course
According to Breitschopf, as a solution to the existing bottlenecks, twice as many study places at the Vienna Music University or another training facility at a university in cooperation with the Music University would be needed in the North-East region. In addition, according to Breitschopf, the quality of training is also under pressure because more and more students are teaching after completing a four-year bachelor’s degree and fewer and fewer are studying or completing a two-year master’s degree. According to the government’s plans, the bachelor’s degree should only last three years from 2026/27 – a plan that the Music Council is critical of. A music education course that also involves artistic training “cannot be completed in a fast-paced course,” emphasizes Breitschopf.
In addition to the personnel problems, there is another construction site for the Music Council in the school sector: ÖMR Vice President Harald Huber criticizes in the APA conversation the continuous dismantling of the structures for music education in Austria. The Ministry of Education has not had a dedicated contact person for music education for ten years, the permanent working group with the ministry has also been abolished and since the school administration was switched from the state school councils to the education directorates in 2019, the specialist inspectors for music lessons have also been gradually lost. because they are no longer being filled. According to Huber, however, these play an important role in music projects and cooperation with music schools; cultural and educational institutions from music universities to the State Opera to the Salzburg Festival campaigned for their retention in a petition.
“The music country Austria is disavowing itself”
“Austria, a country of music, constantly disavows itself in the school sector. Instead, the possibilities of music in terms of cultural participation, creativity, social learning, integration and inclusion, personal development and peace policy should be highly valued and promoted.” This would also correspond to EU and UNESCO programs, said Huber.
