A total of 25 children often have to be looked after by two people – a teacher and a helper – in Upper Austrian kindergartens. They have to be attentive every minute so that none of the children entrusted to them get injured. The noise level is high, the salary is not. The result: many teachers are overworked and exhausted, some are thinking about changing jobs.
“The hat is on fire in elementary education,” summarizes Christina Müller (name changed), the head of an Upper Austrian kindergarten, in the OÖN interview.
She expresses what apparently many of her colleagues think: On Monday, on the day of elementary education, representatives of the GPA and Younion unions handed over a petition to improve working conditions in the kindergartens to the responsible LH deputy Christine Haberlander (VP). A total of 5000 people have signed. The demands are well known: smaller groups, more staff, better salaries.
“The situation is currently catastrophic,” says GPA-OÖ Managing Director Wolfgang Gerstmayer. “For the employees, for the children and for the families.” The many desperate calls from members would show that it was no longer reasonable for anyone to wait any longer. Improvements are needed quickly.
sick and exhausted
“The groups urgently need to be reduced,” says kindergarten director Müller. “That would reduce the burden on the educators and helpers.” There are often children of different ages in the groups. “Among the three-year-olds, for example, there are often babies in diapers,” says Müller. “If one goes to change diapers, the other is completely alone with more than 20 children.” An enormous responsibility that sooner or later some people will no longer be able to bear. “In our kindergarten, a teacher resigned after a long-term sick leave, a second one has been on sick leave for almost a year.”
This is also expressed in a study by the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor with 1430 participants, which was recently presented: According to this, one third of those working in child education and care are emotionally exhausted, and just as many cannot imagine working in the profession until they retire.
In addition, there is the financial situation and unrealistic schedules: “For a full-time position of 40 hours, there are seven hours of preparation time, and correspondingly less for part-time work,” says Müller. “It can’t work out.” As a result, the educators would make preparations in their free time.
All of this is not hidden from the students at the Educational Institute for Elementary Education (BAfEP): some would choose a different profession after their Matura. “That’s a shame,” says Müller. “Because it would be such a nice job.”
Source: Nachrichten
