Education and Research
The demand for teachers in Sweden is on the rise but more teachers are leaving the sector - Why?
Wednesday, 01 August 2012
Sweden will need over 100 000 new teachers in the coming years. But
instead, more teachers are leaving the profession because of what is
being described as "harsh working conditions and low wages."
Therefore there will be a serious shortage of qualified teachers in
Sweden and what the Swedish teachers' union called a "national
teacher's crisis."
"We face a national teacher's crisis," said Eva-Lis Siren, president of the Swedish Teachers Union to Radio Sweden.
The need for new teachers is high in the coming years, as many will
retire. But with increase in the number of children that need to go to
school means that the total amount of teachers needed will also need to
be increased.
According to
calculations from the Local and Regional government Authorities, SKL,
since 2010 and up to 2019 there is the need for 109 000 new teachers.
these are highly demanded in the preschool, but also many are needed in
the high school in subjects such as mathematics and engineering.
The teachers' unions believe that it will be difficult to recruit as
many teachers as needed because recruiting teachers for science and
engineering for high school will be very hard. There will be increased
struggle to fill teaching positions with the right trained people,
according to the Teachers' Association.
The Union president contend that there will be a shortage of 43 000
teachers in eight years. In other words, there will be a national
teachers 'crisis,' in Sweden
There are three main problems affecting the Swedish teaching field and which play leading role in attracting teachers.
The first to be identified is the closure of the teaching sector from
the broad base society. Dues to traditional racial discrimination in
the Swedish job market, ethnic minorities are not encouraged to take
careers in teaching. Given the large unemployment within the non-white
Swedish population, within it are teachers who are properly trained -
say in other countries but are not integrated in the Swedish teaching
mainstream. They are disqualified just by their looks. Also younger
non-whites are not encouraged to take course that could lead them to
careers in teaching as such the number of non-white Swedes in teaching
is minimal.
The next problem has to do with their inability to recruit teachers
from abroad. With teaching carried out in Swedish, language barrier
means that they must rely only n home grown and the fact that not much
are being trained it would means that teachers when needed will not be
there.
Laxly, government policy in recent month which strong rules have been
placed in teacher recruitment and the fact that salaries for teachers
in Sweden are not competitive means that the teaching profession
becomes less satisfying leading any teacher already on the field to
leave.
by Scancomark.se Team
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