D.he red-red-green coalition in Berlin has decided to reintroduce the civil service for teachers, which was abolished in 2004, and to temporarily raise the maximum age limit to 52 years. The Senate is reacting to the need for teachers in the capital. Up until now, Berlin was the only federal state that employed teachers only as employees. In addition to the return to civil service, the coalition under the future governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) is taking further steps to overcome the bottleneck. To this end, she wants to further qualify teachers with a professional qualification from abroad who have only studied one subject, and thus make it easier for them to start their careers. Even primary school teachers with a teaching qualification for lower grades according to GDR law, teachers without full teaching qualifications or simple teachers are necessary in view of the 70 percent share of lateral entrants in elementary schools.
The coalitionists have also taken up a central demand of the so-called quality commission, which evaluated Berlin’s education system: to strengthen and expand the institute for school quality and to set up a Berlin state institute for education, training and further education for employees at Berlin schools. The coalition agreement also includes a commitment to performance-oriented school development and quality control with longitudinal studies, as well as data-supported consultations between schools and the school supervisory authority.
“Berlin schools non-discriminatory”
However, neither the quality commission nor the quality advisory board, which has been working for a long time and accompanies the practical implementation of the central quality improvements, is named. The chairman of the Berlin State Parents’ Committee, Norman Heise, announced to the FAZ that the parents would not allow a new head of office in the school senate to drop the steps initiated by the quality commission and the advisory board. That should be difficult, however, because not all Greens and Social Democrats support quality control. The left certainly does not.
In addition, the coalition agreement names the goal of “making Berlin schools non-discriminatory”. To this end, the coalition will make the educational staff more diverse and “revise the framework curricula and teaching and learning materials in a way that is critical of racism and colonialism”. The coalition advocates “strong diversity and queer skills in all educational professions and strengthens the topic of sexual diversity and identity”. All schools are to become inclusive schools. The opposition criticizes the orientation towards gender and diversity, including the research policy spokesman for the Berlin CDU, Adrian Grasse.
Non-scientific criteria for filling vacancies
There is some evidence that the Green top candidate Bettina Jarasch should take over the health and science department, because there are many similarities between the two areas, for example at the Charité, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), the Heart Center and the Berlin University Alliance ( the Excellence Network of the three Berlin universities).
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It remains unclear how the statement “to further develop the tried and tested instrument of university contracts” can be put into practice. The basic funding is to be strengthened, “false incentives are to be eliminated and performance criteria to be adjusted”. As in many other parts of the coalition agreement, such announcements may conceal a clear dissent between the coalition partners. On the one hand, there is a clear commitment to the science capital Berlin and the research location; on the other hand, non-scientific criteria are emphasized, such as the goal of filling at least 50 percent of all positions and functions at universities and research institutions with women.
Better demand forecasting as the goal
It remains to be seen whether the founding of a humanistic university, which is being promoted primarily by the former Secretary of State for Education, Mark Rackles (SPD), will be supported by the coalition. It should be examined and, if it is founded, above all train specialists in the field of social work and pedagogy. It is highly controversial within the coalition.
After all, Red-Red-Green wants to achieve the agreed number of 2000 graduates in teaching through improvements in the course. So that the teacher shortage does not recur cyclically, there should be a precise demand forecast for teachers and also be included in the binding capacity planning. “The coalition is also striving for a nationwide state treaty for needs-based teacher training,” says the coalition paper.
But the best requirements planning is of no use if prospective teachers drop out of their studies or decide on another career path shortly before graduation. It remains to be seen whether an evaluation of the course of study and training can avoid dropouts. There are already such evaluations for teacher training courses in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. So far, they have not changed anything about the shortage of teachers.
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