Aug 30, 2024
ZLSB meets education experts at Union Congress ('Sächsischer Lehrerverband')
v.l.n.r: Diskussionsteilnehmende Prof. Dr. Axel Gehrmann, Michael Kretschmer und Christian Piwarz (erste Reihe) vor Vertreter:innen der Gewerkschaft
The Union Congress of the Saxon Teachers' Association ('Sächsischer Lehrerverband': SLV) took place on 22 and 23 August 2024 on the theme of “Bildungsmacher - WERDEN, SEIN, BLEIBEN”. A special topic on the agenda was the professional policy public event on the topics of ‘’teacher requirements, workload reduction and teacher training‘’. Participants in the discussion were Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer, Minister of State for Education Christian Piwarz, the Managing Director of the ZLSB, Prof Dr Axel Gehrmann, and the deputy state chairpersons of the SLV, Petra Müller and René Michel.
Around 150 delegates from 27 district associations, numerous representatives from the ministries and state offices for schools and education, as well as the teacher training centers at the universities in Leipzig and Dresden, experienced stimulating and forward-looking discussion and exchange formats on educational and professional policy challenges in the federal state of Saxony.
The panel discussion format with Minister President Michael Kretschmar, Minister of State for Education Christian Piwarz and the Managing Director of the ZLSB attracted particular interest. The discussion focused on issues such as performance incentives as motivation for employees, the promotion of early childhood education, multi-professional teams in the context of Bildungsland 2030 as well as advancing digitalization and lateral entry as an alternative route into the teaching profession.
Podiumsdiskussion der berufspolitischen öffentlichen Veranstaltung. V.l.n.r.: Petra Müller, Christian Piwarz, Michael Kretschmer, Axel Gehrmann, René Michel
All three panellists emphasized the growing importance of the latter two topics for Saxony's educational landscape.
Prof. Dr. Axel Gehrmann underlined the uniqueness of the cooperation between Schullogin and the ZLSB at TU Dresden and emphasized the importance of the state-wide identity management system ('Identitätsmanagementsystem': IDM) for Saxony. Schullogin sees itself as a gateway to the central digital services for pupils, trainee teachers and teachers in the Free State of Saxony and is provided free of charge by the State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in compliance with data protection regulations. Since the start of the school year alone, more than 10,000 new users (teachers and pupils) have registered with Schullogin. Christian Piwarz added that a very successful test run of the new AI tool "Assistent KAI" (data protection-compliant AI use) is currently taking place with up to 4,000 people. By the end of the year, all 35,000 teachers in Saxony should have their own access to the AI assistant KAI via Schullogin.
The topic of lateral entry was of enormous importance and explosive for all those present, as, according to Michael Kretschmer, around 30-40% of lateral entrants in Saxon schools counteract the shortage of teachers - the average nationwide is around 10%. Christian Piwarz emphasized the indispensable contribution of lateral entrants in the present. Prof. Dr. Axel Gehrmann referred to a very successful and unique Saxon model of systematic scientific training since 2017 by the universities in Leipzig, Chemnitz and Dresden. More than 2,000 people have already been qualified through the university-based programs in Saxony.
The panel discussion ended with the Minister of Education, Christian Piwarz, thanking the teachers, teacher trainers and other education experts.
The cooperation between the SLV and the ZLSB is based on years of constructive collaboration in various contexts. These include, for example, Teachermania (an annual teaching festival at TU Dresden) and the awarding of the examination prize for the best student teachers.
Contact: Dr. Peggy Germer <Peggy.germer@tu-dresden.de>