Overview

• A software error dating back to 2005 caused 1,440 teacher positions to be misrecorded as filled, with the discrepancy growing by an estimated 80 to 100 posts each year
• Annual budgets of €110–120 million allocated for the unfilled positions went unclaimed but were never spent, meaning no taxpayer funds were lost
• Culture Minister Theresa Schopper issued a public apology and vowed swift action as a joint working group with the Rechnungshof begins tracing the glitch’s root causes and fortifying controls
• SPD and FDP Landtag factions have requested a special session of the education committee and are considering a parliamentary inquiry into the administrative failures
• Teacher associations warn the phantom posts represent roughly 35,000 weekly teaching hours lost, highlighting long-standing shortages in the state’s schools