European awareness of the common challenge of teacher shortages leads to increased efforts to address it, for example, with new Erasmus+ Teacher Academies.
Having sufficient, motivated, and qualified teachers is essential for any strong education system. A cornerstone of the European Education Area (EEA) is to support the teaching profession and to raise the quality of teaching in the EU. This is particularly relevant as teacher shortages are widespread across the continent due to demographic changes and the reduced attractiveness of the teaching career due to low salaries and challenging working conditions. A number of countries in Europe have recently seen teacher strikes as well, e.g. in Portugal or the United Kingdom. A recent Eurydice report confirms that a large majority of countries in Europe face teacher shortages (35 countries including Switzerland), and only three countries report an oversupply and no shortage (Cyprus, Turkey, United Kingdom).
Key actors in the EU, among them teachers’ representatives, education employers, the European Commission (EC) and the 27 ministers for education, have put the focus on this topic and proposed remedies to improve the situation. On 31 January 2023, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) agreed on a joint framework of actions to improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession. The actions are grouped into seven pillars and include improving working conditions and promoting investment to combat stress, mental health issues and work overload. It will be formally adopted on 14 December 2023. On 7 March 2023, the EU education ministers held a policy debate on high-quality teachers. As education policy lies within the competence of the EU Member States, the initiatives and actions of the national ministers are key. Making career pathways more open and flexible is one element with the goal to get people who are already further in their working life into the teaching profession and to attract former teachers back to the job (from retirement). This is particularly relevant as 40% of all teachers in the EU are over 50 years old (Eurostat). The other main aspect is undoubtedly the question of fair salaries; in 2018 less than half of teachers were satisfied with their pay (see OECD report). A number of countries, such as Croatia, France, Hungary and Italy have recently increased the salaries of their teachers to address this issue. Further, the ministers mentioned other actions, such as addressing the increasing amount of administrative tasks or the introduction of specific scholarships to boost STEM teacher training. The provision of additional teaching assistants or mentoring programmes should further help keep teachers in their jobs. However, one of the main challenges remains the low societal recognition of the teaching profession. The same OECD study from 2018 shows that only 26% of teachers consider their work valued by society. Changing this requires a cultural shift that will be hard to legislate for. In this regard, a number of countries, led by Belgium, call for 2024 to be the Year of the Teacher to increase awareness and recognition.
The European Commission is also taking the topic seriously and considers it a priority area; however – with its competence limited to support and coordinate – its actions are constrained. The Commission, for example, funds and promotes teacher mobility with the Erasmus+ programmes, and fosters excellence in teacher training via the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies, which just saw the creation of 16 new consortia and will be continued in the call for projects in 2024. More generally, the EU wants to gather more data and organise further peer learning exercises. At the next meeting of the Council of ministers on 15 May 2023, a Council Recommendation on well-being in the teacher profession is expected.
Switzerland faces similar teacher shortages and pushes for increased teacher training and further flexibilisation of teaching careers. If Swiss institutions become eligible, and in the future participate in Erasmus+ Teacher Academies, this mutual learning and joint quality development of teacher training could be beneficial for all actors involved.