Lower Saxony vows 5,600 new teacher posts, job guarantee for Haupt- and Realschule teachers

Persistent shortages in key subjects and school types

Lower Saxony's schools continue to face a teacher deficit, with the sharpest gaps in mathematics, natural sciences, sport and art, according to Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg. The most acute need is at Haupt-, Real- and Oberschulen, the non-gymnasium secondary school tracks. Hamburg told DIE WELT and N-tv that anyone considering a teaching degree for these school types "has a job guarantee, wherever they want." The minister described the shortage as a structural problem across Germany, but noted that Lower Saxony has taken steps to counter it.

Salary bump turns the tide on teacher migration

At the start of the current legislative term, the red-green state government raised salaries for teachers at Haupt-, Real- and Oberschulen as well as primary schools to the A13 pay grade. That move has started to bear fruit, Hamburg said.

Before, we had the situation that people emigrated from Lower Saxony to North Rhine-Westphalia or Hesse because they could earn more there. Now teachers no longer leave the state, and we are even seeing more people come to us than go to our neighbours.

The minister did not disclose exact migration figures but framed the shift as a decisive turn in a competitive market for qualified educators.

Incentives to fill underserved regions

The real pressure is distribution, not just total numbers. Hamburg said many teachers do not realise how stark the regional gap has become.

I think many teachers are unaware that we have regions where we need teachers so urgently that we no longer advertise in the more popular areas.

Teachers sometimes wait years for a post at their preferred school, taking short-term substitution contracts instead of a permanent placement. To steer candidates toward understaffed districts, the ministry now attaches a three-to-five-year service requirement in shortage regions to vacancies in attractive municipalities. "Many teachers then realise that a small school is actually wonderful, or the staff is super nice, or they fall in love and stay," Hamburg added. Since last year, the state has also offered a flexible path: new teachers can begin as public employees rather than civil servants, keeping the option to move later, which is more reliable than a temporary contract. "We are promoting this very aggressively. Bit by bit, word is getting around."

Progress and remaining challenges

The minister pointed to measurable improvements in teaching supply. The coverage ratio, which tracks whether there are enough staff for the mandated teaching hours, has risen from 96.3% to 97.2% during her tenure. More than 2,000 vacancies have been posted for the coming school year after the summer holidays, with a fill rate of about 75%, similar to previous years. Hamburg also said the state will create over 5,600 additional teaching positions this legislative period, filling most of them with top-trained teachers. She stressed that the increase is not automatic.

We really have to work to maintain the level. But we are doing everything to at least stabilise, if not improve, teaching supply.

The new legal entitlement to all-day childcare and additional hours for basic skills, together with rising pupil numbers, will further drive demand. For the first time, the minister said, the state is hiring more teachers than are leaving the profession, a milestone that she said nobody would have believed at the start of the term.