'Tackling the teacher shortage leads to a discussion about competences'
The approach to the teacher shortage should not be hindered by the discussion about the system of powers. That stated 'driver of the teacher shortage approach' Merel van Vroonhoven today in the Lower House.
Picture: Type tank
“I get so angry about inequality in education opportunities. In the poorest neighborhood in The Hague, the Laakkwartier, the teacher shortage is 21 percent. A kind of resignation has arisen about this. We have come to think it almost normal that there is no teacher in front of a class. We have almost come to think it normal for students to be sent home, or to watch School TV all afternoon. And that classes are so large that there is no question of differentiation. I hope that you as the House of Representatives will hold on to that anger. ”
Merel van Vroonhoven made no bones about it today in the House of Representatives. As the best-known lateral entrant in the Netherlands - she was chair of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets - she also became a 'stimulator of tackling teacher shortages'. And last summer she presented her recommendations, to which she gave an explanation to the Lower House today.
I really doubt that teaching in primary education is easier than in secondary education
The "not very happy" conclusions of her research are, in a nutshell, that the approach to the teacher shortage is too limited and fragmented, and not based on facts enough. One of her recommendations is that teacher training programs should offer more tailor-made solutions. “As a lateral entrant, you get the compressed training for seventeen-year-olds. While as an adult you have also gained some life experience. That requires a different didactics.”
Salary
Furthermore, according to Van Vroonhoven, the 'salary problem' must be solved: the problem that primary school teachers earn less from their colleagues in secondary education. "I really have my doubts that teaching in primary education would be easier than teaching in secondary education."
Competition should also be tackled between schools and between boards and study programs. “I sometimes joke that there is more competition in education than in the financial world. There is no incentive to work together. And then it can happen that pupils from one school are sent home because there is no teacher, while a school a little further away has no teacher shortage at all. ”
blackboard
Finally, the professional group, teachers themselves, should also be closely involved in the developments. “For example, how can you design courses without having representatives from the profession sitting around the table? I am not aware of any other professional profession in which that is the case. ”
Taskforce
Van Vroonhoven calls for a task force to be set up, in which representatives of all the organizations involved will work together teacher shortage going to solve. The participants in that task force should 'step over their shadow'. "You're not in it for your own sake, but for the sake of the children."
Decide what you want with the powers elsewhere, don't get it into the task force until you're out
Furthermore, the task force should only focus on solving the teacher shortage, and not be burdened with other discussions. Such as the discussion about the powers of teachers. “Do not include everything within such a task force, because then you will spend a long time talking instead of taking action. The teacher shortage is really too big a problem for that. Decide elsewhere what you want with the powers, only get it within the task force when you have decided. ”
Starters
That is also the wish of AObdirector Henrik de Moel, who is currently from the AOb involved in preparing the task force. “Fortunately, as trade unions, employers, the teacher collective and teacher training programs, we can find it good on a lot of points. Such as the guidance of starters and measures to stimulate the lateral intake. "
Hang-iron
The discussion about competences remains a hot topic. “I fully agree with Van Vroonhoven: that discussion must be conducted elsewhere,” says De Moel. “And that also happens. Some parties believe that adapting the system of powers is a solution to the deficit. But how much do we care if AOb also worry about the teacher shortage: we think that adjusting the competences will lower the status of the profession and the quality of the teachers. That is really not going to reduce the inequality of opportunities for students. You only do that with well-trained, competent and normally paid teachers, who teach in not too large classes. ”
Read the interview that the Onderwijsblad had with Merel Vroonhoven: 'We will not solve the teacher shortage with the current approach'
