Teachers no longer allowed to teach subjects they’re not qualified in

Understaffed schools hit hardest by the measure

7. julij 2018 ob 9.19 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

No-one knows how many full-time teachers teach subjects they are not trained for. Foto: BoBo

Full-time teachers will no longer be allowed to teach subjects they are not trained for. Some schools still ask their teachers to teach subjects they do not have a degree in, e.g. a math teacher would often teach chemistry classes or work in the school library.

No-one knows how many full-time teachers teach subjects they are not certified to teach because the Ministry of Education does not keep accurate records. Some estimates suggest that there are 300 such teachers in Slovenia.

The Ministry of Education recently sent out a circular instructing schools to keep these teachers employed full-time. Principals were asked to make sure that from now on such teachers teach subjects they are certified to teach. However, these teachers may now also be required to teach at more than one school.

The Ministry of Education does not believe that any of these teachers will lose their job. Still, some of them could lose their full-time position and receive less pay.

"They won’t lose their jobs, but some of them could be put on a part-time basis," said Gregor Mohorčič of the Ministry of Education. It appears that some principals will have their work cut out for them over the summer break.

"I don’t think anyone has studied the effects such measures could have on small schools on the periphery. These schools have always had staffing issues. We need to wait and see," said Gregor Pečan, the chair of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.