“Condition is unsustainable” – Bullying and violence against teachers is rampant

The rampant shortage of staff and the challenges posed by the corona pandemic have pushed many teachers to their limits in recent years. But in addition to being overworked and being overwhelmed, mental and physical violence is also part of everyday school life for an alarmingly large number of teachers.

This is the result of a representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of the Education and Training Association (VBE) among 1,308 school administrators. It was presented on Friday at the German School Management Congress in Düsseldorf.

Around two-thirds (62 percent) report cases in the past five years in which teachers have been directly abused, threatened, insulted, bullied or harassed. At every third school there were incidents of violence in which teachers were defamed, harassed, harassed, threatened or coerced (34 percent) or in which teachers were even physically attacked (32 percent).

Compared to the last survey from two years ago, the number of violent incidents against teachers is at a consistently high level. In contrast to two years ago, however, only about a third of the school heads surveyed are of the opinion that the topic is largely dealt with openly in schools in Germany. Almost half consider this to be a taboo subject.

The results are a "scandal," says VBE national chairman Udo Beckmann. "The fact is: Violence against teachers and school administrations is the order of the day and has become an ever greater problem in schools since the beginning of the corona pandemic," says Beckmann.

If the percentages are extrapolated to the population of general education schools, this means that in the past five years there has been psychological bullying in almost 20,000 schools and cyberbullying or physical violence in a good 10,000 schools. "This state of affairs is untenable," said Beckmann. "The protection of teachers urgently needs to be on the political agenda."

In the past five years after the study, there have been direct abuses, particularly at secondary, junior high and comprehensive schools as well as at special schools and schools. Multiple entries were possible.

Accordingly, teachers were primarily insulted by parents (77 percent) and students (70 percent). There was an above-average frequency of physical attacks against teachers at special schools and schools and they were almost exclusively (97 percent) from students, in individual cases also from parents (eight percent). Incidents of bullying via the Internet, on the other hand, occurred with above-average frequency at Hauptschule, Realschule and Gesamtschule as well as at Gymnasium; here, too, schoolchildren were the largest group of perpetrators with 71 percent, followed by parents (58 percent).

The pandemic and the associated measures are apparently also to blame for the aggressive mood. Half of all school administrations stated in the survey that since the beginning of the Corona period, cases of psychological or physical violence at their school and on the Internet had increased - especially in secondary, junior high and comprehensive schools. At every tenth school there have been violent attacks in the past two years that were directly related to the implementation of the Corona measures. Here the parents were the main perpetrators at 70 percent.

The headmasters were also asked where they currently see the greatest problems in their professional practice. With 69 percent, the teacher shortage was most frequently seen as the biggest problem at the school - twelve percentage points more than four years ago. 34 percent of those surveyed complained about the high workload and the lack of time on the part of the teachers – this value has also increased continuously in recent years. The school administrations also see growing problems with the topics of inclusion and integration.

As a result, the proportion of school administrators who are only occasionally or never able to fulfill their professional tasks to their own satisfaction has more than doubled to almost 40 percent of those surveyed over the past four years. The proportion of school principals who would definitely or probably recommend their profession has decreased noticeably in recent years and is currently only 46 percent.

The school administrations surveyed gave a disastrous testimony to educational policy. Almost half would give a grade of 5 or 6. "Politics must finally provide school administrations and teachers with the framework conditions they need to fulfill their tasks," Beckmann demanded. "The school administrations rightly rate the school policy in their country at 4.3 - transfer at risk."

"Kick-off Politics" is WELT's daily news podcast. The most important topic analyzed by WELT editors and the dates of the day. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or directly via RSS feed.