Amsterdam school boards support action for primary school teachers
Amsterdam primary school boards support the PO in Actie group. The boards recognize the problems raised by the group and encourage the teachers to speak up about them.
This is evident from a letter dated 29 March from the Amsterdam Broad Administrative Consultation (BBO), to which 33 Amsterdam school boards - with a total of 218 schools - from primary and special education are affiliated. “We had a meeting on March 22 and the boards present all expressed their support for the action,” says BBO secretary Maryse Ramselaar.
Signed yesterday PO in Actie, the PO council and the unions have a joint manifesto calling on politicians to invest more money in primary education. Then schools can appoint more educational support staff, create smaller classes and teachers have more time for lesson preparation. The wages of the teachers can then also be increased.
A point
The Amsterdam school boards endorse the views, because they experience the same problems. “We are already suffering from teacher shortages and we see that good teachers are leaving Amsterdam,” says Joke Middelbeek, one of the two chairmen of BBO. "The points raised by the teachers are very justified. They really have a point. And if they go on strike for that, then so be it. We support this action." The boards are already looking together at how they can come up with solutions to deal with the consequences of the Amsterdam teacher shortage and to maintain the quality of education.
