- 429 new people to vote in Hamburg
With the swearing-in of 429 new teacher trainees, Hamburg has reached its new maximum training capacity of a total of 1,350 future educators for the first time. "Together with the trainees (...) from August 2023 and February 2024, we have more trainees than ever before and have thus reached our target mark (...)", said Senator of Schools Ksenija Bekeris (SPD) on the sidelines of a Senate reception for the future educators at the town hall. To address the teacher shortage, the number of training places for the 18-month preparation service was gradually increased from 855 in 2019 to the current 1,350.
"We had (...) twice as many applicants as we actually had places", said Bekeris. To keep the teaching profession attractive - Hamburg needs around 900 new educators each year - the trainee allowances will be increased by 100 euros in November and by another 5.5 percent to 1,767.17 euros in February 2025. Afterwards, all new teachers - regardless of whether they teach at gymnasiums or primary schools - will receive at least the salary grade A13, which means a starting salary of around 4,700 euros gross, according to the table.
According to the education authority, there were around 13,000 educators and pedagogues responsible for more than 161,000 students in 2011, when the SPD took over the government. Since then, the number of students in Hamburg has increased to over 200,000, and the number of educators and pedagogues has risen to almost 18,000.
The average age of the new educators is 30.6 years, with the oldest being 59 and the youngest 23. The male share is 29.3 percent. Most men are drawn to vocational schools and gymnasiums, where the share of male trainees is 46.3 and 37.5 percent, respectively. Few men want to become primary school teachers, where the share of women is 86.4 percent.
The new teacher trainees took an oath as they started their training, swearing to uphold the principles of education. This increase in trainees has been a result of the SPD's commitment to addressing the teacher shortage, as indicated by the significant rise in training places since 2019.
