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Erfurt (dpa / th) - In the fight against the shortage of teachers and the absence of lessons, Thuringia takes money in hand and wants to lure teachers with allowances and higher salaries.
To this end, the state parliament decided on several legislative changes in Erfurt on Friday.
For the first time, a bonus system is being introduced in Thuringia, which, for example, secures prospective teachers high monthly bonuses if they commit to teaching for five years after completing their training in a region where the teacher shortage is particularly severe.
For several years there has been a lack of teachers in the Free State - especially in elementary and mainstream schools and in certain subjects such as mathematics, chemistry or music and art.
Parliament also decided to change the law on teacher training.
The most important innovations are as follows:
HIGHER SALARY
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Thuringian primary school teachers can look forward to a higher salary from August 2021: Then they should be grouped in salary level A13 and thus receive as much as teachers at high schools and mainstream schools.
Depending on the age group, the salary in group A13 is between around 4,300 and 5,500 euros gross per month.
The AfD parliamentary group voted against.
With the salary increase, the job should become more attractive.
Some education politicians also hope that with the better financial prospects, more primary school teachers from other federal states will come to Thuringia.
ALLOWANCES
The state parliament also decided on a new allowance system on Friday.
According to this, prospective teachers can receive up to 1,000 euros more per month in their preparatory service if they commit to teaching for at least five years in a region where the need is particularly high.
But other teachers can also get an allowance if they teach in so-called regions of need - up to ten percent of the basic salary in addition to the initial level of grade A13 are included.
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Even if teachers take on special tasks at their school or are specialist advisers, the allowances should be given.
"Currently there are no attractive incentives for teachers to take on additional tasks in everyday school life in Thuringia," said the education policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Christian Tischner, in the state parliament debate.
He described the bonus system that has now been adopted as a “solid foundation” on which one could build in the future.
TEACHING STUDIES
The state parliament set the course on Friday so that the University of Erfurt can change the teaching degree for primary school teachers.
Among other things, the school subject school garden is to be merged with the subject of local history and specialist studies in the training in Thuringia.
The Teacher Education Act was changed for this.
With the changed teacher training course, the University of Erfurt also wants to implement a requirement of the Conference of Ministers of Education.
However, the school subject school garden will not be abolished - the change only relates to training.
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The education policy spokeswoman for the opposition FDP parliamentary group, Franziska Baum, called for the training of teachers from other types of schools to be reviewed - especially with a view to the challenges in the area of digitization.
“We want teacher training to be not only up-to-date, but also a bit ahead of its time,” said Baum.
FREE SCHOOLS
After a long struggle for a suitable amount, the independent schools can now expect around 217 million euros to come from the country next year.
This means that they receive significantly more money than before.
A government draft for the 2021 budget initially stipulated that the free schools should receive only 183 million euros next year - around ten million euros less than in the 2020 budget.
With the law that has now been passed, the funding of the free schools will also be extended.
In addition, there are annual rates of increase and the financing will in future be linked to wage and price developments.
In future, free schools can also benefit from the school budget;
it is 30 euros per student and can be used for extracurricular activities or to support teaching.
After all, teachers should be able to take advantage of state training measures in the future.
Lateral entrants at independent schools should also be able to take a state qualification.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210216-99-458195 / 2