Danish public school students are increasingly being taught by uneducated substitute teachers, according to the local and regional data keepers Kommunernes of Regionernes Løndatakontor (KRL).
In September 2014, 86 percent of substitute classes were run by substitutes who were not educated as public school teachers – an increase of 7 percent compared to 2013.
”I don't doubt that the substitute teachers do everything they can when they enter the classroom,” Anders Bondo Christensen, the head of the national teachers' association Danmarks Lærerforening, told DR Nyheder.
”But when someone comes – perhaps straight from upper-secondary school – and has to comprehend the education of maybe 25 students without any vocational background or knowledge of the students, and without knowing what the students need to learn, then the teaching will be poor.”
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Lack of teachers
And it's not just the level of uneducated teachers that has increased in recent years. The number of substitute-led classes has also skyrocketed.
Through the month of September this year, substitutes have worked enough hours to fill 1,265 full-time teaching positions – a 50 percent increase from the 830 full-time positions that substitutes filled over the same period in 2013.
The headmasters' association Skolelederforeningen argue that the substitute increase was due to a lack of available teachers who are under pressure after the recent school reforms and new working hours.
