Schools face major organizational challenges. You have to expect that several teachers will be absent in the next few weeks, because of the normal flu season, and also because of corona symptoms or the quarantine orders. A school in the canton of Bern has found a way to solve this problem. She is looking for a corona jumper.

Kindergarten in the morning, high school in the afternoon?

The school principal Christine Herrmann admits that these teachers have to cover a wide range of ages. "If we don't have enough teachers, we have to close the school." This does not help either the schoolchildren or the parents.

First and foremost, the jumpers should bring calm into the system, says Herrmann. "After that we can still fall back on the pool of representatives." The school had become active itself and was looking for its own solution because there was too little support from the canton. "We found out that nothing happened here."

"We don't leave the schools alone," replies Susanne Müller from Bern's Education Directorate. The pool of representatives was supported. Since April, an additional person has been helping to bring schools and possible deputies together. To this end, a network of students from the college of education, the universities and the RAV has been built, said Müller.

Not all can afford this

Schools cannot hire teachers in advance. Corona jumpers are therefore only an option for larger communities, says Susanne Müller. "In smaller communities, fewer teachers will probably have to be in quarantine." There are probably not that many absences there that a new position would fill.

However, the Springer solution could help to fill at least one gap, says Andreas Hachen from the Association of Bernese School Directors. "The more gaps we can fill, the better."

In any case, the headmistress of the Breitfeld / Wankdorf school is satisfied with the start of the project: "The response to the job advertisement has been positive," says headmistress Herrmann. Six applications have come in so far. That is a lot in the time of teacher shortages.

(translated and edited from German by Xiaotong Wei)

Read the original story here.