Journalistic style; Minister of Culture Piwarz praises lateral entrants in Saxon schools

According to Minister of Education Christian Piwarz (CDU), lateral entrants will remain an integral part of Saxon schools for the foreseeable future. "We are glad that we have them. Saxony has taken a path that is exemplary throughout Germany. We are ahead of some federal states in this respect," Piwarz told the German Press Agency in Dresden. Thanks to years of experience and the lead time, it has also been possible to learn what makes sense in some areas and what does not.

Saxony launched a qualification program for lateral entrants in 2016, primarily to address the shortage of teachers for mathematics, natural sciences and foreign languages. A university degree is a prerequisite for lateral entry. The aim of the qualification is to teach interested candidates pedagogical and methodological content. In total, around 2,400 women and men have entered the teaching profession in this way since 2016. This school year, 264 people have opted for lateral entry. A third have given up the job again.

Piwarz is delighted to see so many committed lateral entrants: "They are a great asset. Not only because they help to fill a vacancy, but also because they enrich the teaching staff in the schools with their professional and life experience," he said. "Nevertheless, we still want to ensure that teaching is carried out by fully qualified teachers. This must remain our goal." That is why we are working on improving the utilization of study places and increasing the pass rates in teacher training courses. However, fewer and fewer young people are studying natural sciences, meaning that they will be unable to enter the profession later on.

"If this situation does not change fundamentally, we will continue to have a shortage of subjects in the future. We are also heavily reliant on lateral entrants in vocational schools," said Piwarz. This specialist expertise is particularly needed there. "In any case, however, we need to find a sensible balance between fully qualified teachers and lateral entrants."