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Saxony cuts 4,600 teaching posts

Saxony cuts 4,600 teaching posts
Minister of Education Conrad Clemens (CDU) has presented the new teacher requirement forecast. (Archive image) / Photo: Robert Michael/dpa
From: DieSachsen News
Fewer pupils, fewer teachers: job cuts at Saxony's schools will begin in 2032. However, the Minister of Education wants to avoid the mistakes of the past. A planned buffer should ensure this.

By 2040, there will be 4,600 fewer teachers in Saxony due to falling pupil numbers. According to the new forecast, 25,600 teachers will then be needed. The level should remain stable until the 2031/2032 school year, said Minister of Education Conrad Clemens (CDU) at the presentation of the figures in Dresden. Only then will the job cuts begin.

The aim is not to repeat the mistakes of the past, emphasized Clemens. "In other words, we don't want to cut corners." The predicted 20 percent decline in pupil numbers from the 2031/2032 school year to 2040/2041 will therefore not be reflected one-to-one in the number of teachers. The calculation therefore already includes a buffer.

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Additional teaching hours to provide a buffer

Measures are planned to improve the quality of education at schools in Saxony. These include an additional hour of subject teaching in Year 3 from the coming school year and a third PE lesson in Year 4 from 2027/2028. At primary schools, one hour of individual support with a focus on language skills is planned from 2028/2029. A so-called class hour for organizational issues has also been announced from 2028/2029.

The teacher requirement forecast is based on the pupil forecast published by the State Statistical Office in December. In the 2040/2041 school year, around 80,000 fewer children and young people will be attending school in Saxony than today. Instead of the current figure of around 440,000, the State Statistical Office is expecting only 337,450 to 367,500 pupils.

School closures not ruled out

According to Clemens, the closure of individual schools due to job cuts cannot be ruled out, but should be avoided as far as possible. "I don't want a repeat of the rigorous school closures that we saw at the turn of the millennium," said Clemens. "At the moment, we are assuming that we can maintain the decentralized school network as far as possible." Decisions on closures should be made by the local authorities.

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