Action for better collective labor agreement for secondary education: "This is just the beginning"
This morning, almost eighty secondary school teachers campaigned for a better collective labor agreement for the first time in Nieuwegein. Among other things, they want good agreements to reduce the workload.
Picture: Fred van Diem
“For me it is not about 50 euros more per month, but about two lessons less per week so that I can keep up with the work,” says John Arts, history teacher at the Over Betuwe College in Elst. "I see colleagues falling over and that does something to you."
In agreement, economics teacher Ben de Vries holds up his sign with 'Smaller classes'. Together with colleagues, he forms a long string at the entrance of the NBC conference center in Nieuwegein, where the employers' organization VO-raad is holding a conference. It is the place where many school administrators and school leaders from secondary education come this morning.
Discontinued
Collective bargaining has been halted since February. The AOb wants good agreements about salary and lowering the workload, but the employers' organization VO Council has refused to make agreements for months on this last point. That is why the teachers have now started a first action.
“I stand here out of solidarity with my younger colleagues,” says De Vries while his colleagues are active around him flyers handing out demands to conference attendees. “I myself will retire next year, but I really wonder whether my younger colleagues will be able to retire. A colleague who worked full-time for a year did not know how quickly she had to reduce her appointment to four days. ”
A colleague who worked full-time for a year did not know how quickly she had to reduce her appointment to four days.
Less teaching hours and smaller classes, that would make a difference, according to the economics teacher. “Now teachers have too much work to do. During Easter I also have to check two profile papers and a total of ninety tests. The school management does not see that. ”
Birthday present
Around half past eight in the morning, the visitors arrive for the conference. “Think of us today, please, one flyer”Says a campaigner. The visitors have to go through the teacher barrier to find the entrance.
“I always think of you,” says a school leader, laughing as he squeezes his way past a teacher who is holding up her own flyer with a traffic sign that reads: 'High workload in progress.'
It really hurts when colleagues drop out when they are very enthusiastic.
This high workload is also the main reason for history teacher John Arts to make the trip to Nieuwegein on his birthday at half past five in the morning. “Now something is finally coming from the teachers themselves,” he says. “This promotion is a nice birthday present.”
The doctor sees many teachers at his school struggling with burnout complaints. “Do you know a professional group that is also so bothered by it? It really hurts that colleagues drop out while they are very enthusiastic. ”
The salary is not the main reason for the Doctor to take action. “The wage offer of the VO Council of 2,35 percent is a joke, especially after years of zero. But we have grown an elephant skin, we know we are not appreciated. Yet it is more important that education becomes healthy again and the workload decreases. "
Stressed out
The teachers will receive support this morning from the students, united in the LAKS, who make themselves heard with a megaphone in hand. Schoolgirl Anouk Gielen, 6-VWO, says: “We notice when a teacher is stressed and lessons are not properly prepared. We sometimes also hear from students that they do not dare to go to their teacher with a problem because they know that he or she is already so busy. ”
Physics teacher Jean-Pierre Nelk of the Stedelijk Gymnasium in Schiedam thinks more is needed than this action. “I've been calling for some time, we have to be flat during the final exams. This promotion is a prelude to more. ”
Cheering sounds like AObdirector Henrik de Moel borrows the megaphone from the students and says that this is just the beginning. “We will continue until we have fewer hours, smaller classes and a higher salary,” blares through the megaphone.
We will continue until we have fewer teaching hours, smaller classes and a higher salary
According to mathematics teacher Rob Hommen of the Lyceum Schöndeln in Limburg, action is also needed. “There is a fire in the sector. The employers do not feel the urgency and do not know what is going on in the workplace.”
Hommen sees this illustrated by the reports that come out in the press, for example about staggered exams. "My colleagues and I thought: there are so many more urgent matters, such as reducing the workload." This action is a warm-up round, he says, rubbing his hands from the cold outside. “This is really a start. Something needs to be done about the workload. I never finish my work and I constantly feel the pressure. ”
The conference visitors always react with resignation and accept the flyer from the lecturers. The VO Council itself was already prepared for the activists. The council had hung a sign at the entrance with an arrow straight ahead for conference visitors and an arrow left to the A12 in the direction of political The Hague for activists.
