Teacher shortage: the real reasons

by Prof. Dr. Mario Andreotti*

(11 April 2023) Up and down the country, school presidents and principals are looking for teachers for the new school year. In eastern Switzerland, the situation is somewhat less dramatic than in other parts of the country. In the Lake Constance region, all vacant teaching positions were once again filled. Nevertheless, the situation remains tense here as well, as guest author Professor Dr Mario Andreotti writes.

School authorities and education policymakers cite most reasons for the teacher shortage, which has been worsening for years, that obscure the true causes. There is talk of entry-level salaries that are too low, classes that are too large, rising pupil numbers, increasing part-time work for teachers and so on. That may all be true. Yet, the real reasons for the acute shortage of teachers lie elsewhere.

For some time now, things have been stirring up in various schools because school authorities, but also school principals, want to impose learning concepts oriented to Curriculum 21 on teachers, sometimes in a brash manner. Teachers are being sent to further training courses in order to be trained for their new role as coaches or learning facilitators. In addition, they are monitored and evaluated, burdened with learning reports, observation sheets, protocols and coordination meetings, so that they hardly get to teach any more, let alone find time for human contact with the pupils. Despite their several years of university education, they are no longer trusted to organise lessons independently. Learning advisors, school developers, evaluators, supervisors and instructors are still needed, whose main task is to check whether the individual teachers fit into their grid.

Whole class teaching frowned upon would bring best learning results

The teaching profession is in the process of being massively devalued. Until now, teachers organised and delivered lessons, enjoying methodological freedom within the framework of the curriculum. They managed the fate of their classes and were largely spared from administrative clutter, so that they could devote themselves fully to their main task, teaching. Today, teachers must teach according to Curriculum 21, which lists over 2000 levels of competence on 470 pages. The once cherished freedom of methods is now mere theory. Whole class teaching which has been proven to produce the best learning results, is completely frowned upon. It is replaced by “self-organised learning”, in which the students are supposed to steer their learning process themselves and the teacher only accompanies the learning process as a coach on the sidelines.

Moreover, teachers are increasingly complaining about the lack of appreciation of their work by the public. Overcrowded classes, inclusive teaching and constantly new administrative tasks contribute to the teachers’ sense of lack of recognition. Is it any wonder that under such conditions more and more teachers lose their joy in their profession?

* Prof. Dr. Mario Andreotti, born in 1947 in Glarus, studied German, history and didactics of higher teaching in Zurich. In 1975 he completed his doctorate under Emil Staiger with a thesis on Jeremias Gotthelf. In 1977 he obtained a diploma for the higher teaching profession at grammar schools. Until 2012, Andreotti was a teacher at the Kantonsschule am Burggraben in St. Gallen. Since then he has been a lecturer and instructor in literary studies at the University of St. Gallen and at higher technical colleges. As an expert on modern German literature, he is a member of various literary commissions and regularly writes columns and opinion pieces in renowned newspapers and magazines.

Source: https://condorcet.ch/2023/03/zu-wenig-lehrerinnen-und-lehrer-die-wahren-gruende, 21 March 2023

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)