TIROLER TAGESZEITUNG, leading article: "Teacher - dream or nightmare job?", by Anita Heubacher

2023-05-03 20:01:07

Issue of Thursday, May 4, 2023

Innsbruck (OTS) – Schools are not “only” lacking in teachers, but also in supporting staff, from assistant principals to school psychologists. The lack of teachers also has to do with the attractiveness of the job.

Education Minister Martin Polaschek is already sure. Teaching is a great job. Under this title, the ÖVP minister launched an image campaign for 600,000 euros and then in the autumn the “largest teacher offensive of the Second Republic”. In addition to a further development of the training, a “new narrative of school” should help to find new target groups for the teaching profession and thus alleviate the shortage of teachers. Many people who were anchored in the system did not find this offensive that “great”.
Austria affords an expensive education system whose efficiency leaves a lot to be desired. 18 percent of the pupils cannot even read simple texts at the end of compulsory schooling. For decades, education in Austria was primarily discussed ideologically and not very scientifically. There was no broad education debate at all. In the last election campaigns, education was not even remotely an issue.
There is enough action to be taken. As in all professions, biology is doing its part to increase the teacher shortage. The baby boomers are retiring, and not enough young educators are coming. That was foreseeable. In the past, being a teacher was a respected profession, which also took advantage of the home office very early on and brought several weeks of vacation, the image and reputation of the profession have suffered badly because of this. As is the reputation of most professions, one might add, from journalists to politicians.
The fact that a manageable number of lateral entrants or young people are attracted to pedagogy also has something to do with the attractiveness of the job. Too few opportunities for advancement, too little room for maneuver and probably also an apprenticeship that lags behind today’s requirement profile. So many areas of social conflict are brought into the school and carried out there that support from other professional groups is also needed in addition to education. School psychology should be mentioned here as an example for which the school gates should be opened. But it also means the assistant to headmasters or administrative staff to free up teachers for what they are hopefully good at: teaching.
School needs to move. For the parents, whose demands have increased, for the students who are learning for life, and for the teachers, who have a very meaningful job that they should be allowed to do.