Nearly 1,000 school graduates start a teacher training course in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern every year. But not even half of them bring it to a successful conclusion.
According to a study published in the previous year, only about a quarter of prospective regional teachers complete their studies. Another quarter changes the school type. At the same time, four out of five currently active teachers are expected to retire by 2030, according to the GEW Teachers' Union.
The government has now responded to these developments - it wants to facilitate teaching studies. The Universities of Rostock and Greifswald are planning major changes in the teaching profession to reduce the extremely high drop-out rate. Thus, first-year students should be cared for more individually, so that they can become aware of their suitability for the teaching profession at an early stage.
1.1 million euros for additional posts in teacher training
"In the coming years, we will have to fill more than 700 teaching posts, so we have to train and finish more young people," said Education Minister Birgit Hesse (SPD) at the presentation of the innovations.
The imparting of specialist knowledge should, above all, have a stronger connection to the lessons in the natural sciences. Students had previously complained that the scientific claims were too high.
Internships at schools should also be better integrated into the study and then evaluated. "The occupational field must be clear from the beginning," said Carolin Retzlaff-Fürst, director of the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research.
Birgit Hesse announced that she would provide 1.1 million euros annually for additional posts in teacher training. With up to 200,000 euros to be supported students who complete their internships outside the university cities and thus have to bear extra travel costs.
"We just test too much"
Better coordination of schedules will reduce the burden on students. According to the information, a smaller number of examinations per semester is also considered. "We are simply testing too much," stated the Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching at the University of Greifswald, Steffen Fleßa.
According to GEW state chairman Maik Walm, government and universities are providing important impetus with the announced changes. "However, looking at the size of staff shortages at the schools, this is only a small step in the right direction, and universities must now seriously show that teaching is not the third wheel on the car, as before."
The package of measures presented by Hesse with the vice-presidents of both universities is regarded as a first reaction to the lack of success in the study of teaching students in the state.
The leader of the left-wing parliamentary group, Simone Oldenburg, complained that the state government is reacting late to the identified deficits. "The education minister needed just about one year to announce initial measures to improve teacher education, another two semesters in which hundreds of future teachers had to throw in the towel because there are not enough seminar places and places in the practical exercises sufficient. "
Oldenburg advocated the immediate abolition of the numerus clausus for teaching studies. "On the one hand we need thousands of teachers, on the other hand we do not let them study because there are too few places available."