In view of the shortage of teachers in Berlin, a primary school in Prenzlauer Berg wants to break new ground. According to a concept of the school management, the lessons should start half an hour later, the school hours should be shortened from 45 to 40 minutes, as the “Berliner Morgenpost” reports.
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In this way, the range of courses offered at the elementary school on Kollwitzplatz should be able to be maintained even when teaching resources are scarce. “The implementation of the concept is planned for the coming school year and will be accompanied by an evaluation at the end of the two semesters,” the newspaper quoted from a letter from the school management to the parents.
The regular start of classes is to be postponed to 8:30 a.m. The personnel problems are more serious in the first hour, because many part-time teachers cannot give their own children care at this early hour.
However, the shortening of the teaching hours should not stop there. As the letter quoted goes on to say, the school wants to teach in double lessons of 80 minutes in future so as not to fragment the learning content. “Experiences from schools that already practice block teaching show that the larger clock units are an advantage,” it says. “The lessons allow for a more intensive examination of the learning content in one go.”
Ultimately, it is therefore not about less teaching, but only about redistribution. Remedial lessons and the compulsory class council lesson from the coming school year would not have to be deducted from the class teacher’s subject lessons.
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The new concept is not yet a done deal: the general conference and the school conference still have to agree. The education administration informed the newspaper that the schools could determine the starting school time themselves by means of a school conference decision.
