Germany’s Teacher Unions Sound Alarm Over Staffing and Health Coverage as Bavarian Works Council Elections Near

A report released on June 11 by the German Diabetes Society (DDG) calls for the nationwide deployment of school health nurses — known as School Nurses — at every school in the country. Yet the current reality is stark: across Germany, only 150 such professionals are employed. The Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV) has seized on the figure as evidence of a systemic failure in health provision for students, arguing that a permanent nursing presence is essential for equal educational opportunity. BLLV President Simone Fleischmann underscored the link between health staffing and fairness in the classroom.

The nurse shortage is one of several grievances prompting an unusually early push by Bavarian teacher unions for the 2026 works council elections (Personalratswahlen). The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bayerischer Lehrerverbände (abl) and the KEG Bayern have joined the BLLV in urging educators to vote, framing the ballot as a decisive moment for workplace conditions, occupational health, and reducing daily stress in schools.

The BLLV has a ready-made demand. In a position paper from 2023, it already called for a major expansion of school health nurses. Now, with just 150 specialists nationwide, the union wants swift action — and has produced a template motion for works councils to use in pushing their school boards for new hires.

Early childhood education is another flashpoint. On June 11, a hearing of experts took place in the Bavarian state parliament on the planned reform of the Bavarian Child Education and Care Act (BayKiBiG). The new rules are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027. Sarah Heße, who leads the BLLV’s social and educational services division, levelled sharp criticism. The union argues that the reform fails to align staffing ratios and leadership resources with scientific evidence. The core complaint remains the same: too many children, too few qualified educators. The BLLV is demanding an evaluation of the law roughly two years after it comes into force.

On the pedagogical front, the Bundesjugendspiele — Germany’s national school sports competition — have become a new battleground. BLLV expert Antje Radetzky has denounced moves to return the event to a rigid, norm-referenced contest. She calls it a retrograde step in education policy. A modern understanding of achievement, she argues, should reward individual effort and learning progress, not fixed tables. The traditional method of evaluating children by birth year, she says, ignores biological differences and often rewards the month of birth rather than actual diligence.

The union is also defending the principle of compulsory schooling against what it sees as a fundamental political attack. In early June, BLLV honorary president Albin Dannhäuser accused the far-right AfD of planning to abolish the general school attendance requirement (allgemeine Schulpflicht). He described the proposal as an assault on a cornerstone of democracy.

While Bavarian unions mobilise for the 2026 works council elections, labour unrest is simmering in other parts of Germany. In Hesse, the education union GEW has called for demonstrations on June 20 to protest cuts in education and social spending. Meanwhile, wage disputes are escalating: warning strikes are scheduled for mid-June in the retail and wholesale sectors as well as at several university hospitals, with unions demanding significant pay increases. In Upper Franconia, the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) is preparing for its own election year in 2027, when roughly 54,000 companies will vote for their representatives.

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