More than 1,400 teaching positions in Baden-Wurttemberg have gone unfilled for years due to a programming error that began in 2005. The error meant that teaching positions which should have been marked as vacant were incorrectly logged as occupied.
Every summer, while most German children, parents, and schools juggle a rotating schedule for their summer holidays, the southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg invariably enjoy the last slot in the sought-after month of August.