Teacher too comfortable? The association accuses PISA boss Schleicher of “regular table slogans”.

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Classroom: Mutual accusations about Germany's educational misery

Photo: AJ_Watt / Getty Images

The criticism from OECD Education Director Andreas Schleicher was tough: many teachers in Germany saw themselves primarily as “recipients of orders” - and lacked ideas on how lessons could be better designed.

Schleicher questioned whether the much-complained overload of work really had to lead to educators fighting their way through as “lone warriors” instead of working on innovations in teams.

The President of the German Teachers' Association, Stefan Düll, reacted angrily to the accusations.

"This is teacher bashing, it doesn't get us anywhere," he told SPIEGEL.

"The tale of the sniveling teachers sounds like common slogans." It is the teachers' right to point out excessive demands, and other professional groups legitimately do the same.

We also work in small teams to improve the quality of teaching.

From Düll's point of view, teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to impart skills to their students - so they are not primarily responsible for the poor results of the most recent Pisa study.

»It's not just the fault of the teachers.

We have to demand performance from the students, and that's where the problems increase.

It is a mistake to increasingly banish the idea of ​​performance.«

The teachers' union GEW also objected to Schleicher.

GEW chairwoman Maike Finnern described the OECD man's statements as "counterproductive and completely irrelevant to teachers' everyday work."

"Anyone who ignores the fact that Germany has the largest teacher shortage in history, which has been pushing teachers to their limits for years and blocking the necessary reforms, is not making a serious argument." All working time and stress studies show that the teaching profession is extremely challenging.

Schleicher had sharply criticized teachers in Germany.

"To be honest, I have little understanding for teachers who only insist that they are overworked," said Schleicher, who is also head of the international school comparison study Pisa, to the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten".

"Such an attitude would not be accepted in any other job." Germany has "not yet arrived in the 21st century when it comes to the teaching profession."

Students are “relatively good at repeating knowledge they have learned by heart,” explained Schleicher.

However, many people find it difficult to transfer their knowledge to new contexts.

They couldn't distinguish facts from opinions well enough.

In German classrooms, the change to “primarily teaching children and young people to think independently” has not yet taken place sufficiently.

Schleicher demanded that teachers should be “coaches” for children and young people.

You have to “help them with their individual learning processes.”

In addition, a good teacher must support the parents as reference persons.

"He knows the parents and visits them at home if necessary."

“Those are nice, nice thoughts,” replied Düll.

»Teachers usually look after several classes.

If the classes are smaller, you might be able to do that.” Schleicher misunderstands the reality of everyday school life in Germany.

This is also not sufficiently taken into account in international comparative studies.

"The Pisa study deliberately conceals the fact that the great results in Estonia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore are achieved in linguistically and culturally homogeneous classes."

“Hardly any other educational system that sorts so rigorously so early on”

Schleicher, on the other hand, pointed out that German teachers are paid very well compared to international standards.

However, he advocated organizing their working hours differently.

He recognized teachers' demands to be relieved of administrative tasks.

In view of the poor German results in the PISA school comparison, Schleicher also called for longer joint learning.

"The German school system sends children onto prefabricated tracks too early," he told the newspapers.

There is “hardly any other education system that sorts so rigorously so early on.”

These are structures of the industrial society of the last century, Schleicher explained, “when it was still assumed that not so many knowledge workers were needed.”

Today, however, “we have to promote every talent,” he said.

nis/dpa