Björn Höcke
Teaching Profession
Thüringen Landtag, May 15, 2020, Protokoll
7/14, pp. 82-85
[Björn
Höcke is the Alternative für Deutschland chairman in the eastern German state
of Thüringen as well as leader of the AfD delegation in the Thüringen legislature.
He is a teacher.]
Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable
colleague members.
In regards the theme of “teacher”, it is
clear that naturally I must approach the speaker’s podium primarily against the
background of all the proposals which you have delivered. Herr colleague Wolf, ja, Wolf’s Story Hour was again
presented. Or should I better say, Wolf’s Hot Air Hour? If your speech was
transcribed, Herr Wolf, there would be only an uninterrupted series of blank
lines on the paper.
The fact is, right honorable colleagues, that
in politics almost nothing can be so well planned for as the need for teachers.
That, from here – not from the current speaker’s podium, but at our accustomed
place of activity – I have often previously articulated. The students, right
honorable Herr Minister Holter, who six years ago – thus at the beginning, you
were then not yet on board – were born under the red-red-green government,
are now of school age and are commonly in the Grundschule. Nothing is better able to be planned than the teacher
requirement. Ja, the CDU had made
promises for decades in the area of teacher planning and the red-red-green
government unfortunately has done no better; and that we regret –
unfortunately, not to have done better.
Herr colleague Wolf, your assertion, so
unashamed and by ways and means almost mendacious, that the AfD has not
concerned itself with the theme of “Education” – that is to be sharply
rejected. Education policy is a crucial theme for the AfD delegation in the Thüringen
Landtag. Three years ago, we published a comprehensive education policy
position paper which was very well received by the public. We conveyed in this
paper a variety of ideas on the reform of our education system.
We not only take the pulse of the times but
with this approach we are ahead of the times. Among other things, we have in
this paper – and today I say yes to more autonomy for the schools – expressed: Yes,
we need more autonomy. We have therein indicated that more autonomy means even
more responsibility. More responsibility means again more expenditure for the
bureaucracy. And we have clearly done that: We simply do not want our teachers –
I can report this to you from 15 years professional experience – to be burdened
with more administrative and bureaucratic duties. We want to relieve them. We
want the teacher to return to the core business and that is the education of
our children and youth.
That means, if one says yes to more autonomy,
then one must say yes to school assistants, which we introduced into the debate
two or three years ago, as you – one must eventually say yes to a business
management direction of the school as well as a pedagogical direction of the
school. All that we know already from the school reform discussions of the 70s.
Yet not all that was then discussed was false and not all ought to be
forgotten.
And we say yes to better pay; for example,
for leadership positions in the Grundschule.
Yet we all know that certainly in the area of Grundschule leadership in the Free State of Thüringen we have to
point to an unacceptable vacancy. We must do it. The Grundschule leadership positions – which must be
better paid so that these positions are more attractive for teachers. That is a
demand of the AfD delegation which is already a few years old.
Right honorable Herr colleague Tischner, your demand for a
standard pay for all teachers unfortunately has a clear tendency to a standard
teacher [Einheitslehrer], a tendency
to a standard teacher indeed not through the main entrance but through the back
door.
For the AfD delegation I can say: We reject this tendency per se.
It is a basic law of the market economy: When the demand increases and the
supply is scarce or becomes more scarce, then prices increase. The labor market
is similar: When workplaces, when given positions, when teachers are demanded,
then possibilities in public service must be devised so that there is a more
attractive pay scale [Lohngefügen]
corresponding to the demand for these positions. That is quite important matter
in which we can in common move forward. I am sure of that and on that we are
very flexible. We can devise instruments with which to make the teaching
profession financially more attractive.
And as I said already: The direction duties, primarily in the Grundschule area, must in any case
become more attractive financially, so that we can fill the open positions.
Yet – and as my colleague here before made clear – we must not
make the mistake of paying all teachers the same. That would be an equalization
which is not goal-oriented. A Gymnasial teacher
has an essentially longer training. A course of study completed by a Gymnasial teacher is overwhelmingly
science-based. Therefore, the Gymnasial teacher
has a right to post-graduate study [Promotionsrecht]
and a Grundschule teacher commonly
does not. The workload in the schools for the Gymnasial teacher is essentially greater than that for the Grundschule teacher. For that, I could
present you a whole series of studies.
Henflig (Greens):
You are a poor example of that!
It is self-evidently so. We
have a much greater load of correction of classwork, we have a much greater
load of school certificate examinations which after the tenth or after the Abitur, or more logically during the Abitur, are to be completed. Into that
goes entire weeks of vacation, I can assure you. That is not to be equated with
the workload of a Grundschule teacher.
Rothe-Beinlich
(Greens): No, in the Grundschule they
just play!
That does not mean that the good work of our Grundschule teachers is to be denied. No!
We can also readily speak of improving the financial situation of
all the teaching professions. But that involves the maintenance of a given
difference, right honorable colleague members.
Lukin (Linke): Snobbery!
And now I want at this point to once more get to the basics, as it
is always my method [Art] here to
embed somewhat. There are comprehensive studies which in the last years and
decades have been conducted in the area of sociology. And it is so, right
honorable colleague members: Strongly egalitarian societies and very strongly
hierarchical societies are fundamentally less peaceful than lightly hierarchical
societies [leicht hierarchisch
ausgerichtete Gesellschaften]. That is a basic understanding in the
sociology of recent decades.
What does that mean for men, what does that also ultimately mean
in the area of teacher production? We must look at the fact that we have an
incentive system because man is adjusted not only to an orientation but also to
a light hierarchy. He then is at peace when he has a goal which is yet not so distant
that he cannot attain it with a maximum of effort, and which is so proximate
that he must exert himself, yet have the guarantee that in striving he will be
able to attain it. Das ist eine gute
Ordnung. That means an even [flache]
hierarchy in society, yet also in the area of the school system.
To sum up: We need a differentiated pay, good pay, readily higher
pay for all teachers, but we need a light hierarchy. We need also the
inducement by which through particular achievement one can arrive at positions
of advancement – and that ought not to be an accident but a regular result.
That is how we increase the professional satisfaction of our teacher corps. I
believe that is the understanding of us all.
Rothe-Beinlich
(Greens): All do not agree!
Concluding with but a remark on the CDU’s idea to raise the extra
hours allowance [Stundendeputat] to
32 hours. Dear colleague Herr Tischner, how high was your extra hours allowance
as a teacher? 24-25 hours? That is the result of a total work week of something
like 40 to 42, oftentimes 44 hours. An extra hours allowance of 32 hours, right
honorable colleague member, produces the burn-out of which we now complain much
too often in our schools. I can only warn thereof.
26 hours is, in my eyes and after 15 years of teaching, the
maximum which we can demand of our teachers. On grounds of health, more is not
responsible.
I am grateful.
[Translated by Todd Martin]
