German school teachers experience widespread violence: study

A large share of teaching staff witness and are personally subjected to physical assault by pupils and parents in German schools, a study published on Wednesday by the Federation for Education and Training (VBE) warned.

The findings were derived from a national survey of 1,200 school directors presented by the VBE in Berlin. According to the study, teachers in every third primary school in Germany were physically attacked during the past five years.

Additionally, nearly half of school directors (48 percent) indicated there had been cases of "psychological assault" where teachers were insulted, threatened, bullied, or harassed.

Across different types of schooling institutions, 29 percent of directors reported instances of physical assault against teachers during the past five years. A total of 39 percent of respondents further expressed the view that violence against teachers was a "taboo" subject which was not being openly discussed.

Speaking to press on Wednesday, VBE president Udo Beckmann described the findings as "shocking". Beckmann urged policymakers to stop perpetuating the "myth of the isolated case" in light of the survey results and instead focus their energy on resolving the problem at hand.

Education ministries across Germany's federal states could no longer hide behind an "out of sight out of mind" attitude with regards to violence at schools, the VBE president said.

According to Beckmann, "the facts proved again" that regional ministries of education were "simply wrong" to insist that cases of physical and psychological assault against teachers were rare.

The study was released shortly after several media reports alerted the German public to an apparent increase in violence at the country's schools. Amongst others, a teacher in the state of Saxony-Anhalt wrote a widely-publicized letter in which he pleaded for help from authorities, while a primary school in Berlin was forced to hire security officers to protect staff.

Although the VBE study did not offer any insights into the causes of violence itself, Beckmann called for greater transparency in the reporting of related incidents to raise the pressure on policymakers to find solutions.

"Only when the extent (of the problem) is clear to ministries will they take the appropriate measures to protect teaching staff more effectively," Beckmann argued.

Additionally, the VBE president recommended investments in teams of school psychologists and school social workers, as well as a broader range of continuing education programs for teachers.

Beckmann voiced hope that these measures would better prepare staff at German schools for the "management of heterogeneity" and endow them with crucial skills needed in "conflict situations".