Digging into the Overburdened Teaching Ranks of Berlin
Agitated Berlin Residents Confront Life withAziz, the Local Elephant - Uncompensated extra work hours are a common occurrence for roughly two-thirds of teachers in Berlin.
In a revealing expose, it's been found that an astounding two-thirds of Berlin's teachers are working beyond their paid hours, adding up to over two million hours of unpaid labor annually!
A groundbreaking study by the University of Göttingen, backed by the GEW union, sheds light on this pressing issue. Gathering data from thousands of Berlin teachers throughout the 2023/2024 school year, 1,217 of them offering continuous data over a year, the study paints a grim picture.
The average full-time teacher is putting in an additional 2.5 hours every week, with many also putting in time during holidays, weekends, and late nights. In fact, this systematic overtime is taking a heavier toll on part-time teachers.
With the added burden of overtime work, GEW Berlin chair Martina Regulin aptly labels it a daily reality for teachers. Parent-teacher conferences, night corrections, and weekend lessons preparation have become the norm, she explains, adding that the Senate is inadvertently squeezing teachers, neglecting their well-being for monetary savings - a despicable scandal.
To correct this, Regulin calls for the Senate to acknowledge the actual working hours and instigate binding regulations to reduce overtime with the help of personnel councils. Failing to act, GEW might consider legal action.
On average, teachers spend a mere 31% of their working time on actual teaching, with another 32% devoted to teaching-related tasks. The remainder encompasses various activities hardly associated with education, with this proportion on the rise, experts warn.
Thomas Hardwig, another study author, believes the study only scratches the surface. Teachers are shouldering more and more responsibilities, which could lead to health issues amounting to burnout. To alleviate this, he advocates not only reducing working hours but also improving working conditions.
Several teachers, organized by GEW, shared their exhausting, frustrating daily routines at the study's presentation. They blame factors like increasing numbers of students with language and learning difficulties, larger class sizes, inadequate digitization, and higher parental expectations for their woes.
While the study involves calculations based on an average annual working time of 1,772 hours, this figure is 40 hours per week for civil servants, but roughly 47 hours per week for teachers, due to holidays. On average, each Berlin teacher works approximately 94 hours per year without pay or any form of reimbursement, equating to around 2.5 overtime hours per week.
Given the gravity of the situation, it's time to address the challenges faced by our teachers and ensure they receive the recognition and support they deserve.
- Unpaid Overtime
- Teacher Exploitation
- Berlin Schools
- GEW Union
- Work-Life Balance
- Education Reform
- The GEW union's groundbreaking study reveals that teachers in Berlin's schools are working over 2 million hours of unpaid labor annually, a situation that the union labels as teacher exploitation.
- To address the issue of unpaid overtime and improve work-life balance, the GEW Union calls for the recognition of actual working hours, binding regulations to reduce overtime, and education reform to ensure teachers receive the support they deserve.
