Too few men in elementary schools - this is how it should change

Hamburg's school board wants to recruit more men as primary school teachers. "We note with great concern that most teachers in general and especially in elementary schools are women," said Senator Ties Rabe (SPD) on Monday. Currently, 87.3 percent of the teachers at the 195 state elementary schools are women, and the proportion of men among the trainee teachers is even lower. According to the information, only 6.5 percent of the primary school teachers newly hired on August 1, 2022 are men. "We hope that there will be a balanced gender ratio," said Rabe.

In order to achieve this, the authorities and the "Zeit" Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius have started a model project, initially planned for three years and endowed with around 280,000 euros, which is aimed at high school students, students and career changers. A school campus is to be held up to twice a school year, where information is given about “the varied and sometimes challenging day-to-day work of a primary school teacher” and about the course.

The first campus will take place on November 19 at Bucerius Law School. In addition, a cooperation structure is being developed to enable the young men to do internships and sit in at primary schools. Finally, a network for primary school teachers is to be established in which newcomers can exchange ideas with experienced primary school teachers.

"Teachers have the most important profession in this republic of education," said the Chairman of the Board of the "Zeit" Foundation, Prof. Manuel J. Hartung. Together with educators, they are role models, inspire, shape life. "With our joint model project, we want to show that the profession of primary school teacher is varied and has a great influence on the development of children," said Hartung.

It's not just about the fact that a mixed college can take on the variety of educational tasks better than a college that focuses heavily on one gender, said Rabe. It is also about role models, "because the boys at school should also see and be aware that education is not just for women, but also for boys and men".

In the vocational schools there are still about the same number of teachers, but in the grammar schools the ratio is already 65 to 35, said Rabe. He cannot really explain the steady increase in women in the colleges. It couldn't be because of the money that men stayed away. It is a fulfilling, a beautiful job, "but above all a well-paid job".

Those who become elementary school teachers in Hamburg earn more than 85 percent of the population, said Rabe. He therefore suspected that the reason for this was not the payment, but rather gender roles, "which perhaps to some extent favor young men not being as interested in raising children (...) as young women".

The fact that elementary school teachers still earn less than their colleagues at grammar schools and vocational schools, which can still be found in other federal states, will soon no longer apply in Hamburg. So far, primary school teachers have been paid according to the information in the salary group according to A12, high school teachers according to A13. The difference was originally EUR 450 gross per month.

Since two out of three adjustment stages have already taken place, the gross difference is now only 150 euros. "The next year, the elementary school teachers caught up with all the other teachers," said Rabe. Hamburg would then be one of the few countries that would pay its teachers all the same.

According to the school authorities, a job starter at A13 in level 1 receives 4360 euros gross per month. After deducting the private health insurance of around 280 euros, this leaves a net salary of 3180 euros – provided the teacher works full-time. According to the statistics office, only 49 percent of all teachers in Hamburg did this in the 2020/21 school year, which means that the Hanseatic city had the highest part-time rate in Germany with Bremen.