With the school resort in North Rhine-Westphalia it seems almost like in the Harry Potter saga with the subject "Defense Against the Dark Arts".

Because there is a curse on the subject, the teachers there change after each school year.

The turnover at the head of the ministry in Düsseldorf is not quite as rapid, but if you look at the recent past, it is noticeable that the women ministers have hardly been able to last longer than one legislative period - a man has not been in charge of the department for a long time more.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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Barbara Sommer was voted out in 2010 with the black and yellow government of Jürgen Rüttgers (both CDU) after only five years.

Sylvia Löhrmann (Greens) was in office a little longer: initially during the twenty-month phase of the red-green minority government of Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft (SPD) and then, after the 2012 election, for a complete legislative period.

But in 2017, Red-Green was voted out again because of school politics.

The annoyance among parents, students and teachers about Löhrmann's handling of the turbo high school diploma or inclusion was too great.

In the final phase of the election campaign, the problem assumed existential dimensions for the Greens.

Because they believed that school politics was a suitable topic for profiling and winning, they once again chose Löhrmann as their top candidate.

But just a few weeks before the election date, the Greens' demographic nosedive was so rapid that they even feared slipping below five percent.

"Top priority" educational policy

When Christian Lindner set up his “new” FDP from North Rhine-Westphalia, educational policy played a central role.

In the state election campaign five years ago, the Free Democrats loudly promised "the world's best education".

Lindner expressly insisted on the Ministry of Education for the FDP when he formed a new state government together with Armin Laschet (CDU) in the summer of 2017.

Lindner was convinced that the FDP should never again make the mistake of not taking responsibility for those issues with which they had mainly advertised themselves in the election campaign.

The calculation seemed to work.

Yvonne Gebauer was initially able to score points by working off Löhrmann's biggest construction sites: North Rhine-Westphalia returned to high school after nine years of high school, the closure of special schools was ended,

Thanks to bubbly tax revenues, Gebauer was also able to create many new teaching positions.

Gebauer also succeeded in making key reforms in elementary school, such as the abolition of writing by ear.

But then came an evil curse called Corona - and the minister's pandemic policy drew the displeasure of school administrators and parents.

This is one of the reasons why the FDP – which had come to 12.6 percent in 2017 – slipped to eight percent in several polls.

Should the FDP actually perform like this on May 15, it could only remain in power in a Jamaica coalition under Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) or in a traffic light alliance under SPD challenger Thomas Kutschaty, but would have to give up one of its three current departments .

Certainly the pain of separation would be the least at the Ministry of Education.

But who would lead the Ministry instead?

Unlike five years ago, neither party is prematurely filing loud claims.

The Greens – who are expecting large increases – are feeling the Löhrmann shock;

today other departments are more important to them, especially the Ministry of Economics.

In the event of his election as prime minister, the social democrat Kuchaty announced in a cloudy way that education policy would be “a top priority”.

So he doesn't expect to be able to delegate the frustration potential of parents, students and teachers to a smaller coalition partner.

A matter for the boss, a matter for the boss: Kuchaty still needed a school minister.

Jochen Ott would probably get the job.

Before his time as school policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Ott taught history at a comprehensive school in Cologne,