Aldermen G4: 'Give our teachers a higher salary'
The four major cities, Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam, want a large allotment allowance for their teachers in primary and special education. Due to the teacher shortage, they can no longer guarantee the quality of education in their city, the education councilors write to Minister Slob.
Image: Municipality of Amsterdam
The four cities together have 662 FTEs of unfilled vacancies, they say the letter. "That means that 16.550 students have no guarantee of good education." They call the scale of the problem 'enormous' and are particularly concerned about the consequences for the quality of education for all students.
"It is right that the four major cities are sounding the alarm," he said AOb-chairman Liesbeth Verheggen. "We also see the enormous urgency. A better collective labor agreement for all teaching staff is very much needed. The negotiations on this have been postponed until after Prinsjesdag, because real money is needed."
Crux
According to the G4 aldermen, firm and structural measures must now be taken. What the cities themselves do - think of parking permits for teachers, their own subsidies for lateral entrants, attempts to arrange housing - does not work sufficiently. Education alderman Marjolein Moorman (PvdA) of Amsterdam: "We try everything here, but I'm not about the salaries." And that is the crux, says Moorman. "Why else do you think that the deficit in primary education is so much greater than in secondary education?"
The crux is with the salaries: "Why else do you think that the deficit in primary education is so much greater than in secondary education?"
Context
The big cities therefore want Minister Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) to arrange money so that the salary gap between the two education sectors is closed and so that school leaders can be paid better. In addition, the cities are calling for a metropolitan allowance. They say that teaching in a metropolitan context demands more from a teacher than teaching outside the G4: 'Family problems are more common, (language) arrears are more common and the current staff shortages cause a high workload'. Moreover, life in the city is more expensive, Moorman adds.
De AOb is not just for a big budget surcharge. read here*Liesbeth Verheggen: "Where do you draw the line? Last year, a school board in Zaanstad was the first to dare to say out loud that they were only going to teach for four more days. Vlaardingen and Schiedam are literally tied to Rotterdam. The teacher shortage is a major problem for a lot of schools. Unfortunately, you can't solve that with a surcharge for the big cities." Why. The trade union points to the possibilities that already exist for granting allowances. Chairman Verheggen does see that in some neighborhoods - due to the extra attention that children need there - it is even more difficult to find teachers. Verheggen: "These school boards should receive extra resources from the government, so that they can pay better. But that can also be outside the G4."
Parents
Yesterday the school boards from Utrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Almere also got into the pen. They sent a letter to all parents of their pupils in primary education. In it, they mainly ask for understanding for 'the uncomfortable choices that the school management sometimes has to make', such as 'sending a child home for a day, or a few days'.
Crisis
Alderman Moorman now calls the dire personnel situation in Amsterdam an education crisis. “How are we going to explain this to the current generation of children? 'Well, when you were at school, masters and teachers could earn more money elsewhere, so the education was not good.' You cannot make the quality and quantity of your teaching staff dependent on the economic condition of the country. That really needs to change now.”
Education alderman Marjolein Moorman (PvdA): "How are we going to explain this later to the current generation of children?"
In addition to better collective labor agreements and a large city allowance, the G4 wants a higher subsidy amount for lateral entrants and better transfer opportunities for MBO students who want to do the PABO.
