Hey teacher, don’t leave our kids alone

Germany, Switzerland and Austria are “battling over schoolteachers”, headlines Die Presse, alarmed at dwindling numbers of teachers in all three countries. By 2025 about half of the state school teachers will be retiring – “and there’s no telling whether sufficient replacements can be found". The reason: meagre entry-level pay is impelling more and more rookie teachers to seek private-school posts. So Berlin, Berne and Vienna are vying for fresh graduates from neighbouring countries: hence the pedagogical brain drain from Austria, where, as the Viennese daily points out, starting salaries are rock bottom.