The Senate founds an institute for teacher training to improve the quality of Berlin teaching. This was announced by Secretary of State for Education Alexander Slotty (SPD) on Friday.
The tasks of the state institute will include the entire training, further education and further training, i.e. also the legal clerkship. To this end, it is intended to bring together the numerous previously “dispersed” institutions, as the head of the department Anja Herpell put it. This also means that Berlin will be partially detached from the Berlin-Brandenburg State Institute for Schools and Media (Lisum).
The development of the central examination tasks, the common framework curricula and the diagnostic elements remain in the Lisum. Since the large area of ​​further education and training for teachers is no longer available, the Lisum contract with Brandenburg is terminated and redesigned.
Due to the notice periods, Berlin cannot exit before the end of 2024. However, the transitional period is also needed because completely new structures have to be created. Comparable institutes in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein serve as models. Not only the staff, but also a building must be found for this. Options include the campus at the former Tegel Airport, Slotty said.
However, joint research assignments and specialist days should further strengthen the cooperation with Brandenburg, and there should also be joint advertising for new staff “to overcome the competition”. Slotty also paid tribute to the almost 30-year cooperation with the neighboring country in Lisum. But the “challenges” in Berlin’s schools differed from those in Brandenburg – for example in relation to the greater diversity of the students.
In Brandenburg, the Senate’s decision was not well received. “We regret this decision,” said Secretary of State for Education Steffen Freiberg, speaking of “the joint Berlin-Brandenburg educational region”. By 2025, they will now “adapt the structure of the state institute specifically to Brandenburg’s requirements”.
An external consultant is to be commissioned to develop the concept for the new Berlin institute. In addition, the education administration wants to involve the quality advisory board, which was appointed in 2021. In any case, it has the task of supporting the implementation of the recommendations of the expert commission.
As reported, the commission, headed by the Kiel professor Olaf Köller and the former Hamburg State Councilor Michael Voges, gave the Berlin school system a bad report. One of the points of criticism was that the funds for ensuring school and teaching quality are not used effectively. This applies in particular to the training, further education and further training of teachers.
