Municipalities fund teacher training as shortage worsens

Municipalities across Denmark are creating paid training positions for teacher students as a growing shortage threatens the academic standards of public schools, DR reports. Education Minister Magnus Heunicke described the move as an expression of desperation, but said he understood why municipalities were taking action.

Municipalities from Odsherred to Vejle and from Svendborg to Kalundborg have established positions in which teacher students spend a significant part of the school year teaching in classrooms.

In north-west Zealand, a new group of students will be paid for the two days a week they teach at a school. This creates an expense for municipalities that does not exist under the traditional teacher training programme, where practical placements are unpaid.

“It shows that we have not succeeded in solving this problem,” Heunicke said. “But the goal is that we set aside funds so we can get more trained teachers into our public schools.”

The Social Democrats have held the education minister’s post for seven years without reversing the decline in the number of public school teachers. Applications to teacher training programmes are falling, while qualified teachers are leaving the profession.

Heunicke is placing some of his hopes in the teacher training reform introduced in 2023. He also wants to make public schools attractive enough to bring back some of the 40,000 teachers who have left the profession.

“The next important step is to set aside funds so we can get more teachers into public schools, especially in the early years,” he said.

According to Danske Professionshøjskoler, Denmark was short of 4,300 teachers last year, and that figure is expected to rise significantly. Admissions to teacher training have fallen by 28 per cent over the past five years.

Fifteen per cent of those who began teacher training in 2024 had dropped out by last year. More than one in three of those who started in 2019 had also left by last year.

Nearly one in five newly qualified teachers who begin working in a public school immediately after graduating leave within three years. Just under one in four leave within five years, according to Danske Professionshøjskoler and the Economic Council of the Labour Movement, based on figures from Statistics Denmark.

Vejle Mayor Jens Ejner Christensen said municipalities could not wait for lengthy political negotiations at Christiansborg.

“This is not something that can wait for long political negotiations at Christiansborg. This is one of the tools we can use ourselves,” he said.

Several other municipalities are considering establishing similar training positions. Heunicke said the model could form part of the solution.

“I think we have to use every tool. There are also some that have not been invented yet,” he said, adding that too many pupils finish 10 years of school without passing the final tests in Danish and mathematics.