Teachers take initiatives against loss of educational quality
Published: Thursday, Nov 9th 2023, 12:50
Updated At: Thursday, Nov 9th 2023, 12:53
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Teachers are fed up with the annual fire drills due to the shortage of teaching staff. In three cantons, they are therefore taking action against the loss of quality in education with initiatives. Further measures are to follow at cantonal level.
The staff shortage in schools will not change any time soon, as Dagmar Rösler, Central President of Teachers Switzerland (LCH), told the media in Bern on Thursday. The number of pupils is expected to grow by eight to eleven percent by 2030.
With the Education Quality Action Plan, the LCH and initially nine cantonal associations in German-speaking Switzerland want to launch a campaign against the precarious situation. Western Switzerland and Ticino will join in later. The associations are encouraged in their plans by a survey conducted by the Sotomo Institute, according to which the population holds education in high regard.
More and more cantons are filling staffing gaps with people without a teaching diploma, criticized the LCH. This should not become a permanent situation, warned Stefan Wittwer, Managing Director of the Bern Teaching Staff Association. For teaching, pedagogical training is essential, despite all the appreciation for those without a diploma, if children and young people are to receive the best possible education.
Focus on the cantons
As education is a cantonal matter, the action plan starts there. Teachers' associations are launching initiatives in the cantons of Aargau, Bern and Zug. The collection of signatures is due to start after the New Year. Clarifications are currently underway in other cantons.
The three initiatives already known are aimed in the same direction. Teachers without a diploma should be obliged to undergo training. As Kathrin Scholl from the Aargau Teachers' Association explained, the respective canton would have to cushion the loss of salary in a suitable manner.
Other key points include reducing the administrative workload, strengthening classroom teachers, more support for targeted support, smaller classes and more training places.
Graubünden is one of the cantons with concrete proposals. The Graubünden Teachers' Association has launched a petition against the revision of the school law that has been submitted for consultation, as Managing Director Jöri Schwärzel said. The association is fighting the government's plans to grant unlimited teaching qualifications to people without a teaching diploma.
The government also wants to cut special education hours and separate afternoons for each year group in kindergarten. The latter would reduce the kindergarten teachers' workload from 100 to 83 percent, explained Schwärzel.
No national education initiative
Rösler explained that the LCH did not launch a nationwide education initiative similar to the successful care initiative by citing the different circumstances in the cantons.
Schwärzel illustrated this with Graubünden: The shortage of teachers is less pronounced than elsewhere. However, the situation is dramatic for teachers of Italian and the five Romansh idioms.
In addition to the three cantonal initiatives and the petition, a wide variety of initiatives and actions are possible within the framework of the action plan, as Rösler said. In line with the strategy focused on the cantons, they would be individualized.
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