Education and Science Administration
In Magdeburg, the Ministry of Education has outlined adjustments to the school year 2025/26 teaching organization and timetables, aiming to optimize resource utilization, particularly educators' skills.
Primarily, primary schools will see an extension of the timetable by an extra hour for reading, writing, and arithmetic. This mirrors practice in other federal states, with the expectation of reinforcing students' fundamental competencies.
Secondary and comprehensive schools will now be required to offer informatics, commencing with one hour in grade 6 and gradually increasing.
A central challenge is striking a balance in teaching staffing levels, despite the ongoing teacher and specialist shortage. The goal is to lower the disparity in staffing levels among schools and school types and ensure fairer distribution of teaching skills.
Various school organizational measures will be implemented to achieve this goal. These include:
- Reviewing and modifying basic and additional allocations, particularly support pool hours, to target existing potential more effectively.
- Allocating teaching skills to schools based on actual student numbers instead of projections and recalculating basic needs accordingly.
- Implementing stricter rules for class and learning group formation.
- Minimizing reserve hours for teaching staff.
The increased demand for teaching volume drawn from the support pool will be partially compensated by a new personnel category, pedagogical teaching assistants, who will function as learning assistants, thereby allowing teachers to concentrate on core teaching. Primary schools will also partly benefit from the Start Chance program, designed to support schools in socially challenging environments.
State Secretary for Education, Jürgen Böhm, stated, "We aim to make teaching organization more efficient, addressing the persistent teacher shortage and the uneven distribution of teaching staffing levels in the state. In challenging times, educators' precious teaching skills should be directed where they're most needed."
These adjustments are strategic decisions aimed at addressing organizational challenges rather than sleight of hand. While broader strategies for addressing teacher shortages and staffing imbalances aren't explicitly mentioned in this announcement, schools nationwide can employ various strategies to optimize teaching availability, encourage teacher training, improve recruitment, integrate digital learning tools, and support teachers. Consulting local educational authorities or institutions for specific changes in Magdeburg is recommended.
In Magdeburg, the ministry also plans to introduce online education as part of the education-and-self-development sector, providing students with additional learning opportunities. This initiative will reinforce the students' learning skills and promote continuous education outside the traditional classroom setting.
Teachers may build upon their skill sets through online education platforms, engaging in professional development courses in areas such as informatics, thereby further equipping them to meet the demands of the evolving educational landscape.
