Minister of Education Clemens in favor of ending permanent teacher contracts

Saxony's Minister of Education Conrad Clemens is in favor of abolishing the tenure system for teachers in the medium term. According to a ministry spokesperson, the CDU politician considers the approach to be "out of date". He is striving for joint action by the federal states, and Saxony will not go it alone.

After a corresponding proposal from Saxony, the topic is to be discussed at least in passing at the conference of education ministers in Berlin on Thursday. The "Tagesspiegel" had previously reported on this.

Minister: Can't afford to keep civil servants in the long term

Clemens referred to the tense financial situation and the high provisions for civil servants' pensions. "In general, we have to ask ourselves in which areas we still have civil servants. Honesty means that we can no longer afford to have a large number of civil servants given the demand for teachers. The burden on budgets is simply too high," said the minister.

Saxony had long resisted making teachers civil servants and only began doing so in 2019. The main reason cited at the time was the unequal competition between the federal states: Many junior teachers trained in Saxony were migrating to other states because of the civil service system.

Around 40 percent of teachers in Saxony are civil servants

Currently, the civil service system for teachers in Saxony is limited until 2030. According to the Ministry of Culture, around 40 percent of the approximately 32,000 teachers at public schools are civil servants.