High time for the end of the salary difference between primary and secondary education
Where does the wage difference between primary and secondary education come from? Reference is often made to the feminization of primary education, where 83 percent of teachers now teach and only 17 percent are men. But it is not the fault of feminization. It has grown historically, and it is high time to end it.
In my bookcase is a well-worn copy of the Remuneration Decree for Civil Servants 1948. This makes it clear that in the times when there were many more men in front of the class, there was a huge difference between primary and secondary education. The basis of that salary system was based on education. But that old difference has proved persistent, even now that the level of education for primary and lower secondary education has become the same.
Gulden
Those who taught at a high school in 1948 were mostly academically trained and could take home a maximum of 690 guilders per month. Those who left the training college with a master certificate and started working in mainstream primary education could eventually collect 1948 guilders in 490. About thirty percent less. Those who then obtained their certificates for secondary education and moved on to higher education (later MAVO) saw their salary rise to 610 guilders. Slowly, only after thirty years of service.
In those years it paid off to continue learning. An additional deed meant more salary. The system still had dozens of rules with pluses or minuses. That did not change until 1984 with the HOS memorandum. All those hundreds of variants that the education collective agreement had been reduced to a few dozen. And classified by function instead of education. So teacher primary education, teacher lower secondary education and teacher upper secondary education. A memorandum against which, due to the ingrained cutbacks, has been fiercely protested, with actions and strikes, but without result.
Distinction
Because the changes in the salary structure were not allowed to cost money, but rather had to yield, the distinction between primary and secondary education in pay was maintained. With one important exception: nursery school teachers made significant progress. Since the merger of kindergarten and primary school into primary school, the Klos (for the kindergarten teachers) and the training college (for the teachers) have also been merged into one teacher training college, with one salary scale. Although that was also HBO, the difference with secondary education teachers with a HBO degree remained.
In the 2008 teachers' covenant, some of the primary school teachers took another step up, because money was made available for moving up from the lowest salary scale LA to LB. That should have been the case for a long time for four out of ten teachers, but is now stuck at about a quarter of the workforce in that higher scale. Apart from that, the level of the LB scale in primary education is 150 euros behind the level of LB in secondary education. Looking at three-quarters of primary school teachers with LA, they earn almost 500 euros less than their colleagues in secondary education. Both with a higher vocational education.
Unsustainable
A difference that is no longer tenable. Teachers in the lower years of secondary education have, just like the young people in the pabo, a higher professional education. But it doesn't stop there. The educational requirements for primary education are rising rapidly. The academic PABO is advancing. For academics, po-salaries are very low. The number of primary and special education teachers with a master's degree is growing rapidly. As a society, we demand more and more training from young people who are going to teach, but their salary lags far behind that of professions that require a comparable level of education. Step one is clear: scale LA must disappear and LB must be brought into line with the level of secondary education. The boys are already ignoring the teacher training college, but if this salary difference persists, the girls will soon too.
