The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (2023) identifies short-term policies as a reaction to the current teacher shortage, including increased class sizes. Based on administrative data for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the paper examines the extent to which this measure can actually be expected to reduce the number of required teachers. It is shown that effects depend on size, type and location of schools and are rather small overall. Alternative proposals for short-term measures are discussed.

Keywords
class size, teacher shortage, administrative data