Municipalities across Denmark are creating school-based teacher training posts to counter a growing shortage of qualified folkeskole teachers. Kalundborg, Holbæk, Lejre and Odsherred are placing 20 teacher students in local schools as the new school year begins.
DR reports that a growing number of Danish municipalities are now spending their own money on training future teachers. The posts tie teacher students to municipal schools from early in their studies. Some places call it school-based teacher education, while others refer to the students as teacher trainees.
According to DR, 20 teacher students will teach two days a week at schools in Kalundborg, Holbæk, Lejre and Odsherred municipalities, which divide them evenly between them. Odsherred Municipality expects to spend nearly 6 million kroner on the project over the coming years. The number of teacher students there is set to grow to 16 by 2029.
Martin Damm (V), mayor of Kalundborg and vice-chair of local government association KL, told DR that schools will lack trained teachers both now and in the future. He said the shortage will only grow if nothing is done. Per DR, the municipalities hope the students will stay in the local schools after graduating.
Odsherred mayor Hanne Pigonska (V) said the municipality wants more trained teachers on its staff. As reported by DR, she said fewer people apply to the municipality’s schools than it would like. She added that there is no acute shortage, but that the municipality has to plan ahead.
Zealand hit hardest
DR reports that the share of teachers without a teaching degree is especially high on Zealand. In the worst-affected areas, nearly one in three teaching full-time equivalents in the folkeskole has no teacher training. In one survey of schools in Kalundborg Municipality, one in five staff members in a given teachers’ lounge was not a trained teacher.
Vejle Municipality, which has previous experience with a trainee scheme, is creating 80 positions over the next four years, according to DR. Mayor Jens Ejner Christensen (V) said the municipality takes the challenge seriously. He said the arrangement gives new teachers more resilience and a clearer picture of the job they are entering.
DR notes that the model is intended to reduce the so-called practice shock, when theory from the study program meets a class of more than twenty pupils with individual needs. The number of such posts has increased in recent years. Fewer applicants, high dropout from teacher education and retirements are all cited as drivers of the shortage.
Christensen told DR that the problem cannot wait for long political negotiations at Christiansborg. Damm was similarly critical, saying that other efforts have not fully worked. Both mayors said the municipalities are using the tools they control themselves, alongside national policy on the folkeskole.
