published26. June 2022, 20:20
There is an acute shortage of teachers in Switzerland. Various measures are being taken to counteract this.
“With the new salary system, around 63 million francs more will be available annually for the total wage bill,” says spokeswoman Sascha Katja Giger.
Tamedia/Raisa Durand
According to office manager Myriam Ziegler, there is no leeway in the canton of Zurich when it comes to remuneration or other legally regulated employment conditions.
Christoph Soeder/dpa
The education department of the canton of Schaffhausen is taking measures to make the teaching profession more attractive. “61 measures were formulated, all of which are now being examined,” says Ruth Marxer, head of the agency. Among other things, the salaries of teachers in the canton of Schaffhausen are to be increased. It is currently unclear by how much these will be increased. There should also be more support for further training and advisory services. According to Marxer, there will also be an expansion of internships for students and relief measures.
The canton of Aargau has also taken initial measures and revised the salary system: “With the new salary system, around 63 million francs more will be available annually for the total wage bill. This will significantly improve the competitiveness of wages, »says spokeswoman Sascha Katja Giger.
There are similar measures in the canton of Bern. According to the Bern Education and Culture Directorate (BKD), among other things, the wages for teachers in kindergarten and primary school were increased. In addition, better support for young teachers and those returning to work through mentorship has been introduced, and appeals have been started for retired people and those involved in culture, and the use of students. In the canton of Graubünden, a wage increase for kindergarten teachers is being proposed as part of the forthcoming consultation on the partial revision of the school law.
«Development leads to teachers reducing their workload»
According to office manager Myriam Ziegler, there is no leeway in the canton of Zurich when it comes to remuneration or other legally regulated employment conditions. “The authorities can only act within the framework of the legal requirements,” explains Ziegler. However, the education department had declared a “deficiency” at all levels of elementary school. This allows the municipalities to hire people who do not have a license to work in schools.
In St. Gallen, nobody wants to know anything regarding a wage increase at the moment. “We believe that various factors have led to the situation of the shortage of teachers,” it says on request. A wage increase alone would not be expedient. Rather, it is regarding taking account of the need for part-time jobs and deriving future solutions from them.
The Zurich teachers’ association sees it similarly. The association does not ask for a wage increase. That doesn’t solve the real problem. “If you are a class teacher, a flat rate of 100 additional hours is calculated. That is far too little and the overtime is not remunerated because of this flat rate, the teachers work for free,” says Daniel Kachel, secondary school teacher in the canton of Zurich and head of the Zurich Teachers’ Association. The association does not demand a wage increase per se, but that these structures are changed. Specifically, that the overtime of the class teachers are remunerated. “This development means that teachers are reducing their workload because 100 percent is simply no longer possible.”
