The AOb warns that one in nine children will start the next school year without a teacher. Although many schools looked for solutions during the summer holidays, the teacher shortage is still far from resolved.
In het kort
- Een op de negen kinderen begint dit schooljaar zonder leraar.
- Scholen nemen noodmaatregelen, maar dit zijn geen oplossingen voor de lange termijn.
- De overheid moet volgens de AOb kijken naar hogere salarissen en minder werkdruk.
Now that children in central Holland have gone to school for a week, and the southern region is back in school today, the teacher shortage is painfully apparent once again.
Many schools have come up with temporary solutions in recent weeks, such as putting an unauthorized person in front of the classroom or merging classes. Sometimes schools choose emergency solutions such as the four-day school week simply because they don’t have anyone who can teach.
“But that doesn’t make the teacher shortage any less,” says Fleur de Bois of the AOb. “These are emergency measures for schools that have to meet their timetables. There are no long-term solutions.”
Don’t forget that you have to pass sixty tests.
De Bois says the government must now push a number of buttons to find a real solution. Because the quality of education is rapidly deteriorating now that it is no longer structurally possible to fill tens of thousands of vacancies.
According to the AOb, this starts with a good salary. Because if you want to attract new teachers, you need to be able to offer a salary that allows them to pay the fixed costs.
But it also relates, for example, to the workload that is increasing due to shortages. “Young teachers who are just starting out quickly become overwhelmed by the increased workload,” says de Bois. “A lot of people think: What does it matter if you have a class of thirty or sixty kids? But don’t forget that you also have to score sixty tests. And then there is no place for an individual at all.”
“You can’t solve this problem during the summer holidays”
“It’s a long-standing problem,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Education. “You can’t work that out over the summer holidays.”
AOb hopes that the new government will start its work. “We want more structural improvements,” de Bois says. “In recent decades there has been no strong policy to solve the teacher shortage.”
Outgoing Minister Mariel Paul (Primary and Secondary Education) said last week that the government could no longer wait to get involved. The outgoing government will not deal with many issues, and thus it will be transferred to the next government. But according to Paul, the downfall of the government should not be a reason to wait for action against teacher shortages.
The minister expects that many deputies will agree with her, and thus will allow the outgoing government to continue drawing policy in this field.
