Outliers in the country

Most teachers are missing in these districts

Children who find their place in small classes with permanent teachers can count themselves lucky

(Bild: contrastwerkstatt - stock.adobe.com)

School starts again in two weeks. And not all teaching positions have been filled yet. The "Krone" took a closer look in Upper Austria and there are big differences depending on the district. One rural district in particular is a negative outlier and one city a positive one.

Steyr is the city of the blessed. At least when it comes to having enough teachers in the classes in two weeks. There is only one vacancy in compulsory schools in Eisenstadt - at VS Ennsleite. Things are also looking good in the districts of Steyr-Land and Eferding: There are three vacancies in each. In Freistadt, Gmunden and Rohrbach, there are four primary or secondary school teachers who are still "leaving". The vacancies are only in double figures in Wels-Land (ten positions), Wels-Stadt (13), Linz-Land (18), Linz-Stadt (20) and - strikingly, as the only rural district - in Braunau, which also has 20 vacant teacher positions.

We have seen a slight easing of the situation over the last three years, but the situation remains challenging for some schools.

Alfred Klampfer, Bildungsdirektor OÖ

Only two hours in some cases
There are 301 teacher vacancies across the country, 85% of which are part-time positions, some with only two or four hours. "In the compulsory school sector, 45 full-time positions are vacant," says Education Director Alfred Klampfer, hoping for last-minute applicants.

German is in demand
With 150 vacancies, elementary school have the greatest need to catch up, while there are 129 vacancies in secondary schools and eleven each in secondary and special schools. The most sought-after subjects are German, English, math, gymnastics, computer science, physics and chemistry.