General

Subsidy for primary education side entrants is running out

The subsidy pool for side entrants in primary education is virtually empty. Human resources employee Barbera Cantor at school foundation Het Sticht received an email that her application may be rejected because the 'subsidy ceiling has almost been reached'. "I think this is very crooked, especially given the teacher shortage there is."

Tekst karen Hagen - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 20 september 2018 - 2 Minuten om te lezen

Picture: Type tank

In August, the school foundation Het Sticht in the Zeist region hired two side entrants who now teach at two different primary schools. Primary schools can only apply for a subsidy for a contribution towards the costs after the side entrants have started. Lateral entrants need guidance and training to obtain their teaching qualification within two years. Schools receive an allowance for this. “It is about 20 euros per side entry student,” says Cantor.

At the beginning of this month, Cantor applied for the subsidy for her school board. She got no response this week. An employee of the Department for Implementation and Education (DUO) emailed that her application for subsidy may be rejected. In the email, DUO refers to the subsidy ceiling that has almost been reached for the primary education sector. DUO was therefore not yet able to process the application.

Parliamentary questions

In the meantime, Peter Kwint, Member of Parliament for the SP, has asked parliamentary questions to Minister Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) about the issue on Friday 21 September. He mentions it Twitter unacceptable that schools are told that the money has run out, while the teacher shortage is plunging education into a major crisis.

The teacher shortage is plunging education into a major crisis. But if schools want to train side entrants, they are told that the money has run out. Unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/mI7cKmUEQB

- Peter Kwint (@peterkwint) 21 September 2018
[/blockquote]

“We are now on the brakes recruiting new side entrants,” says Cantor. “It is very uncertain whether we will receive the subsidy. We would like to continue training teachers and we also notice that the teacher shortage is dire. So this rejection really surprises us. For the time being we will not hire anyone until it is clear how things are. ”

We would like to continue training teachers and also notice that the teacher shortage is acute. So this rejection really surprises us
DUO confirms that the subsidy ceiling for primary education has almost been reached. Spokesperson Tea Jonkman: “On 15 October we will take a closer look at the subsidies. If there are fewer applications for an education sector than there is money available, this money will be divided among the other sectors,” says Jonkman. The DUO website states that lateral entry grants are no longer available for MBO either. Funds have been supplemented in the past. Jonkman: "Whether that will happen again is up to the Ministry of Education."

Missed opportunity

“This is very unfortunate”, responds AObchairman Liesbeth Verheggen. “So we miss out on people for primary education, where they are so desperately needed due to the teacher shortage. These are people who have already decided to retrain. In this way, barriers are raised again. I expect this to be at the top of Minister Slob's priority list. ”