school | Brandenburg's cheap teachers

Has school books, but not enough teachers: Mario Kaun heads the Ludwig-Leichhardt-Gymnasium in Cottbus. Photo: dpa/Sebastian Christoph Gollnow With the new Education Minister Gordon Hoffmann (CDU), Brandenburg's Ministry of Education has "arrived in reality," said Günther Fuchs, state chairman and veteran of the Education and Science Union (GEW), on Wednesday. Fuchs thinks that Minister Hoffmann described the new school year, which began on August 24th, as the most dramatic in the history of the state. Because Brandenburg has “no teachers, more students and now no more money.” At least there was still money in the past.

"We have no teachers, more students and now no more money."

Of course, it is not the case that Brandenburg has no teachers at all. There are 22,311 colleagues teaching at around 850 state schools in the country, including around 17,200 who are regularly trained. The rest are lateral entrants, half of whom don't even have a university degree and who unfortunately don't receive any further training, reports Fuchs. This is a serious omission, especially given the historically poor performance of 15-year-old German students in the 2025 PISA performance comparison. “It is a political scandal that a large proportion of teachers are excluded from training,” says Fuchs.

He speaks of Brandenburg's "cheap teachers" because those entering the teaching profession without qualifications are paid significantly less. If the salaries of civil servants have to be increased as a result of a court ruling, an unfair wage gap will also arise compared to those colleagues who are regularly trained but are not civil servants, but only employed. Brandenburg then has three classes of teachers in terms of pay.

The actual rate of lateral entrants to schools is even higher than 20 percent if you include the 1,100 colleagues with fixed-term employment contracts, of whom only 352 are regularly trained. There are also around 3,000 substitute teachers, most of whom are beginners. “We continue to train too little – and in the wrong way, missing the need,” complains Fuchs.

4,600 students at the University of Potsdam are aiming to become teachers and around 160 more young people have taken the primary school education course newly established in Senftenberg. The dropout rate is fatally high. Only 350 graduates entered the school service this year. According to Fuchs, many also have subject combinations that are not really needed. They are still hired and then have to teach subjects without appropriate training in which there is a particular shortage of teachers, for example mathematics and physics, but also music and sport.

In order to save money, the old coalition of SPD and BSW, which broke up at the beginning of 2026, increased the compulsory number of hours for many teachers by one hour per week. This meant that 750 vacancies had to be filled. Fuchs acknowledges that the new coalition of SPD and CDU now wants to give back 250 of these positions. But he still needs 500 jobs.

Fuchs only informed about the situation now and not at the start of the school year because he wanted to wait for the results of a quick survey. Accordingly, Brandenburg now has 324,000 students – 1,500 more students than in the last school year. Fuchs predicts that the number of students will continue to rise in the coming school year. There will be relaxation in the 2033/34 school year at the earliest. According to GEW calculations, Brandenburg would need at least 1,500 additional teachers. Another 3,000 teachers would be necessary if the country were to take joint teaching with students with disabilities seriously. Because then a teacher and a special education teacher would have to stand in front of a maximum of 22 children, as Fuchs says. In reality there are 28 children and the special education teacher fills in for lessons in other classes that would otherwise be canceled.

“We don’t spend enough money, but we don’t spend little money,” admits Fuchs. In view of this, the PISA results are sobering. You have to imagine that in the land of poets and thinkers many children cannot read properly. Not only are more teachers needed, we have to completely rethink the education system.

According to the results of the PISA 2025 study published on Tuesday, the performance of 15-year-old students in Germany has deteriorated in mathematics, reading and natural sciences. Education Minister Hoffmann responded on Tuesday that this confirms the urgent need for action. “We in Brandenburg have known for a long time that we have to take countermeasures,” he explained. "That's why we have already set clear priorities: We are strengthening reading, writing and arithmetic, creating more learning time and starting language training earlier." However, it is clear that improvements in the education system take time and "will only have their full effect over several years."

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