Blog: "Teachers are in charge again!"
Hélène Jansen is MBO sector manager of the AOb and wrote a blog for the National Education Guide website. She saw that the market forces in education were increasing and wanted to do something about this worrying development.
Statue: Algemene Onderwijsbond
Education is close to my heart. I grew up in an educational family and was raised on the subject of professional developments. So I have seen from close up the influence of market forces in education increasing. Digital curricula, schedules and budgets are increasingly dictated by politics and management at the expense of the say and influence of educators in their field. While being a teacher is really a profession, where you use your pedagogical-didactic qualities and get the best out of students with knowledge and skills. As a teacher you want to be challenged in this.
Digital curricula, schedules and budgets are increasingly dictated by politics and management at the expense of the say and influence of educators in their fields.
Change
In my position in the policy department of the AOb I was given the opportunity to change this worrying development. Together with colleagues and our members, we wanted to make a case for a law in which autonomy would return to the hands of teachers. For fifteen years we lobbied with constantly changing cabinets. We used every relevant social development to get the subject on the political agenda. It was up to us to expose the urgency and convince politicians of the image consequences for the profession if nothing were to change. The AOb has been intensively involved in the formulation of the new bill.
Together with colleagues and our members, we wanted to make a case for a law in which autonomy would return to the hands of teachers.
The road was long, but well worth it. Because since 2017 there is now a law that determines the influence of the teacher on his work. And we are happy with that. I would even argue that without the AOb this legal autonomy for teachers would not have existed, because you can only achieve more together. It characterizes the AOb which has traditionally been a collective of teachers who come together to stand up for their profession and working conditions. My colleagues come from education and work in schools, which puts us in the capillaries of educational institutions. This sets us apart from other unions and explains our passion in our field, right up to the political arena.
To inform
The challenge now awaits us to inform and educate as many educational professionals as possible about this new legally regulated professional space and its interpretation. We want to think with our members about how you shape professional autonomy at school and the space about your curriculum, the method of offering and the resources you want to use. I enjoy talking together about these kinds of substantive matters!
More information about the new Education Act can be found via this link.
Hélène Jansen is MBO sector manager of the AOb and sits at the collective labor agreement on behalf of the union. The AOb concludes the collective labor agreement together with the other education unions and the employers' organization MBO-raad. For the National Education Guide website, she writes about her experiences with political processes, reactions to bills and about collective bargaining in vocational education.
