Education Minister Martin Polaschek and Green Party leader Sigrid Maurer presented a reform for teacher training during the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. The study duration has been standardized for all teachers and will be more practice-oriented in the future.
Polaschek initially presented the results of the ‘Great Job’ project to date, which, among other things, aimed to make the teaching career attractive to career changers. More than 4,800 people have already registered for certification, of which more than 2,300 have already been positively certified, the Minister of Education reports.
“Already moved a lot”
In total, more than 7,000 vacancies in the education sector have been filled. “The measures taken so far have made a big difference in the short and medium term,” the minister emphasizes.
The training of primary school teachers previously took a minimum of eight semesters for a bachelor’s degree and two semesters for a master’s degree – that is, a minimum of five years. Those for middle schools, high schools and middle and higher schools are eight semesters in the bachelor’s degree and four semesters in the master’s degree – so a minimum of six years. This is largely followed by an introductory phase of one year.
Uniform training duration
This is where the latest reform comes into play: the bachelor’s degree program has been shortened to six semesters for everyone, reducing the minimum study duration to three years. A master’s degree is now possible for everyone after two years.
If classroom teaching takes place during the introductory phase, this will be offset against the master’s degree in the future, so as not to disadvantage students who are already teaching. In general, they want to include more practical components in the training.
In the future, there will also be mandatory courses for young teachers in the subjects “Inclusive Pedagogy” and “German as a second language”. You can also choose to focus on your studies here.
“Carrying a double burden”
Maurer emphasized that the goal was to eliminate the double burden on young teachers, especially through the credit options in the master’s program.
As part of this package, the legal protection functions for young teachers are also taken into account and prepared: in principle, until they obtain their master’s degree, they may only be used for a maximum of half of a teaching obligation and may not assume the role of class head and may do not teach non-subject-related lessons.
Source: Krone
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