Council of States wants to facilitate access to universities of teacher education
Published: Wednesday, May 29th 2024, 12:30
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Vocational baccalaureate students should in future be admitted to a university of teacher education without an examination. The Council of States adopted a corresponding St. Gaöö professional initiative on Wednesday by 24 votes to 18 with one abstention. The initiative is intended to address the shortage of teaching staff.
The preliminary deliberations of the Committee for Science, Education and Culture (WBK-S) had rejected the initiative in advance by 6 votes to 6 and with a casting vote by Council of States President Eva Herzog (SP/BS). However, a strong minority of the committee voted in favor of accepting the initiative.
The Canton of Zurich's Department of Education has announced a shortage of teachers at all levels and relaxed requirements for career changers, said Andrea Gmür-Schönenberger (center/LU). It is about people "who want to change from a profession to a vocation" and for whom the current practice puts obstacles in the way, Gmür-Schönenberger continued.
According to the minority, a national regulation on examination-free access should also make the primary teaching profession more attractive. Currently, only people with a baccalaureate or a specialized baccalaureate with a pedagogical focus who have completed a passerelle or are over thirty years old and have professional experience are admitted to a university of teacher education (PH) without an examination.
The Federal Council and the majority requested that the motion be rejected. The number of vocational baccalaureate students at universities of applied sciences has doubled since 2012, said committee spokesperson Matthias Michel (FDP/ZG). In September 2023, the Council of States had narrowly rejected an identical motion by the WBK-N that had been adopted in the National Council. The National Council must now next vote on the initiative.
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