Fall-in pools are becoming empty: first signal of acute teacher shortage
Drop-in pools throughout the Netherlands increasingly have to say 'no' when a school calls for a replacement. Founders see the pools becoming increasingly empty.
Image: Corey Harris - Flickr
Even in regions where the pools were set up two or three years ago to prevent compulsory redundancies, replacements are becoming increasingly scarce. Recently, teachers who worked for a substitute pool increasingly found a job at a permanent school. Favorable for them, but difficult for schools that still have to replace their sick teacher.
Already dire
Especially the speed with which the shortages are spreading surprises those involved. Gerard Langeraert founded the RTC Zeeland substitute pool, among other things, and saw a teacher surplus there turn into a teacher shortage within two years. "We thought that these shortages would not occur until 2020-2021, but the situation is already dire."
Flu is not an option. I would say: make the flu shot available to all teachers.
The same scenario took place at Personnel Cluster East Netherlands (PON), east of the Arnhem-Zwolle line. Director Mini Schouten: "It went so quickly." Last year PON still had 140 permanent employees. Sixty of them left by August. The flexible shell of PON has shrunk even more drastically: from 400 temporary employees in 2016 to 140 now.
Acute problem
Schouten is also an advisor in the Breda area for the replacement pool Leswerk. Until recently, people were used to being able to provide a replacement whenever a school asked for it. “Now they have to say 'no' 10 to 15 percent of the time,” says Schouten.
The adjacent Regional Transfer Center Midden-Brabant indicates that it has an acute problem for replacement in special primary education (SBO). Regular positions are also increasingly difficult for special primary education to fulfill, says director Danitia Laffort.
Amsterdam and Rotterdam
In Amsterdam, filling the pool has always been a challenge. “Our replacements are quickly offered permanent jobs,” says Misalia Stenhuijs of substitute pool De Brede Selectie. Partly for this reason, Driessen HRM, a service provider in the field of substitute pools, stopped its replacement activities in the capital.
Last spring, Langeraert sounded the alarm for a new pool in the Rotterdam Rijnmond region of eleven school boards that together represent fifty schools. “Technically everything was under construction, but there were no people in it. An empty pool cannot be of service to anyone. ”
Flu not an option
Langeraert fears the first flu wave. Situations that suddenly require a large number of invaders can no longer be accommodated. “Flu is simply not an option. I would say: make the flu shot available to all teachers. ” The measure taken by now outgoing Minister Lodewijck Asscher to temporarily suspend the WWZ for education will also make no difference this school year. Langeraert: "The shortages are too serious for that."
