Primary schools cannot complete their formation

Tekst Karen Hagen - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 18 juli 2018 - 3 Minuten om te lezen

Statue: Algemene Onderwijsbond

Uit a poll of the PO council, the representative of the primary school boards, it appears that more than half of the school boards have not yet finalized the formation. A total of 315 school boards took part in the survey. Almost a quarter of boards expect that the vacancies will not be filled. This is in line with previous expectations of the Labor Market Platform PO.

Schools normally complete their formation in May. Then teachers know which group they will teach the following year and the students which teacher they will receive. At the Rotterdam school board Boor - with more than sixty primary schools - superschool director Jan Veenker is still looking for teachers, even though the summer holidays have already started there. “It is much worse than last year,” says Veenker. “We are not yet done with all the groups, while normally you are ready in May or June.” Three weeks ago, Boor still had fifty vacancies, which had dropped to eight the day before yesterday.

We are not done with all groups yet, while normally you are ready in May or June

In particular, he noticed that more people who work in Rotterdam, but do not live there, now choose to work in their own hometown. “That was something we didn't quite expect.” In the end, Veenker succeeded in recruiting teachers through or with the help of an employment agency.

Issue

The shortage is also clearly felt in the capital. The Broad Administrative Consultation (BBO), to which 33 Amsterdam school boards are affiliated, sounded the alarm at the beginning of this month. Among other things, the BBO handed over a petition to education alderman Marjolein Moorman. At that time there were more than three hundred vacancies open, as a result of which almost eight thousand students would suffer. 'This is a problem for the entire city,' said Joke Middelbeek director of BBO in a press release.

Teacher Koos Marinus works at a primary school in Oud-Zuid in Amsterdam. For the AOb he visits many schools and he also notices that the situation is dire. “Schools in deprived areas in particular have a hard time finding teachers, I saw during my visits." In Amsterdam, the summer holidays start next week, but Marinus saw that the schools are far from having their formation completed.

He himself switched schools after one phone call. “That's the way it is now. You can start working at another school as a teacher.” The formation is complete at his own school, but he sees that emergency jumps are being made at other schools.

Teacher Koos Marinus sees schools making emergency jumps to solve the teacher shortage

Measures

Merge classes, for example. Superschool director Veenker van Boor says that this is also one of the scenarios at his schools. “Like a teacher and teaching assistant teaching two classes together.” In the poll of the PO council, schools indicate that they ask part-timers to work more hours, attract extra teaching assistants and use trainee teachers. “And then there shouldn't be a flu wave, because we no longer have anyone in the flexible shell,” says Veenker. Teacher Marinus expects that the workload will increase and the quality of education will come under pressure. “Classes will get bigger.”

AObdriver Eugenie Stolk says that this is the reason for the relay strikes in recent times. “You can say that striking is bad, but sending students home is ten times worse. Primary education is apparently too unattractive to work in at the moment," says Stolk.

She points to the silent reserve: people with authority who do not currently work in education. “They don't come to education to teach a large class for too low a salary. we strike on September 12 in Rotterdam to show that again to the cabinet. That the teacher shortage is partly caused by too low salary perspectives.”