Part-time work keeps pressure on Vienna schools

Teacher staffing in Vienna is less strained than in previous years, but many teachers work part-time, limiting capacity, ORF reports.

Vienna’s education directorate says about 18,000 teachers are currently working in the city. Karin Medits-Steiner, a staff representative for the FSG union faction, said many teachers are still studying and working part-time. She said the school year had started much more smoothly than in recent years.

Thomas Krebs, a staff representative for the FCG union faction, said staffing numbers alone did not show whether schools had enough qualified people available. Teachers who are still studying cannot take on a full teaching workload with all the responsibilities that entails, he said.

Career changers are also expected to help meet demand. The education directorate said it received 440 qualified applications in its latest recruitment round and hired 60 people. Krebs said teachers entering through career-change routes or special contracts may find that the job differs more than expected from what they had anticipated.

Both union factions welcomed support for schools through the Chancenbonus, which can provide social pedagogy, psychotherapy and administrative help. Medits-Steiner said this support could ease the workload of school leaders and teachers. Krebs questioned the value of extra resources if schools could not recruit staff, and said some aspects of the additional management support still needed improvement.

The Vienna education directorate was still recruiting as of last week. It had about 400 vacancies listed and had received around 700 applications. The positions are intended to replace staff leaving during the year, including through retirement or leave.