Teacher in hotel teaches far from home
The stoppers in the fight against the teacher shortage are slowly getting weirder. Teachers from less populated provinces spend the night in hotels during the week to teach on time in the Randstad, at the expense of commercial offices.
Picture: Fred van Diem
To be on time at his school in The Hague, Matt van Schagen had to set his alarm clock very early. He would have preferred to work in his hometown of Deventer, that was always the intention. He is still studying at Saxion's academic teacher training college and was also allowed to work on his graduation assignment at the school where he did his lio internship. But then corona came and there was no more room for Van Schagen at his school. “Understandable, but also very rotten.”
The four letters of application that Van Schagen sent to schools in the area went unanswered. “That surprised me, because everyone always said there was such a big teacher shortage?” Sitting at home did not make him happy and graduating, which he had been looking forward to so much, ended up on the long track.
So Van Schagen decided to take matters into his own hands and look beyond. It didn't click with the first secondment agency he approached. But he wanted to go with the second, Derec. Derec offered him a nice job in The Hague, he could start in group 5. Van Schagen did not want to move to The Hague. His girlfriend lives in the east and the rest of his social life also takes place there. Derec had a solution for the long travel time: Van Schagen stays in a hotel during the week at the company's expense.
Band aids
Derec is an intermediary agency for education, care and childcare. Hotel reimbursements have been used since 2018, says director Arjan van der Kooij. He saw a great demand for suitable staff at schools in the Randstad, while in the rest of the country he found qualified people looking for a job.
Van der Kooij: “We already worked with a relocation allowance. Anyone willing to move to the Randstad will receive a higher amount in their account for the first two years. But that alone did not solve the shortages.”
Usually about fifty to sixty people use the hotel option
This is how the hotel option was born. The number of people who work in this way via Derec fluctuates during the school year, says Van der Kooij, but usually there are fifty to sixty people per school year. “If every placement included a hotel, we would go bankrupt,” says Van der Kooij. But it is clear that it can work out for his company at this level.
“Schools need teachers and teachers need jobs. Thanks to our mediation, there is someone in front of the class. What should schools do differently, send the children home?” Van der Kooij sees Derec as part of the solution to the teacher shortage.
This way you are not addressing the real problem
De AOb is less sure of that. Chairman Tamar van Gelder understands the train of thought, but also warns. “Filling a vacancy in this way is comparable to putting a plaster on. You don't address the real problem. In the long run, the plasters get bigger and nobody can see the real size of the problem anymore.” Even the politicians who have to make the decisions do not realize how dire the situation is, says Van Gelder, while it is their task to tackle the structural problem.
In Van Gelder's view, education itself does not go unpunished. Because why does it take a commercial agency to get this done? Couldn't there have been better cooperation within education to achieve such an exchange? After all, the money that now goes to Derec could have been spent on something else.
Luxury
Van Schagen sometimes gets skewed eyes from colleagues. That he would abuse the system, that he can stay in a luxury hotel, that he gets paid so much. “Then I think: I also work a lot of hours, I think I am really worth my money.”
Most reactions are positive, he emphasizes. His colleagues are happy with him and are always willing to help him. “This afternoon, I asked how I could best tackle something and my colleague immediately gave me a step-by-step plan that worked well.”
It gives me an experience that I never would have had otherwise. That ultimately makes me a better teacher
Van Schagen is very happy that he was given this opportunity. “The children here are different from those in Deventer. In this way I gain an experience that I would never have had in any other way. It ultimately makes me a better teacher.”
When he has had a rough day, he sometimes misses his girlfriend and friends. But his solitary stay in the hotel also has its advantages. “When I come to my room in the evening, I have no stimuli at all. I can really recover. And when I'm in Deventer on the weekends, I really have free time: I don't meet any parents or children."
He doesn't really spend much time in his hotel room. Van Schagen spends so many hours at school that his classroom is also referred to as 'Matt's living room' by his colleagues. “I'm usually there until XNUMX:XNUMX in the evening, yes, more hours than I'm paid for. I drag my clothes, laptop and toiletry bag from home every week, but my study gear and my guitar have a permanent place in my classroom. I really take the time to prepare all my lessons as best I can.”
Traveling
According to Derec director Arjan van der Kooij, staying overnight is not an option for everyone. “I notice that especially people at the beginning or at the end of their career are enthusiastic about this. The people without children at home.”
Lia van de Pas is one of those people who is already approaching her retirement. She lives in Heesch, near Den Bosch, but works as a Dutch teacher in The Hague. She is currently acting for a colleague who is on maternity leave. “I wanted a temporary position. I wanted to keep working, but also have time to travel with my husband.”
In this way, Van de Pas has been helping out for a few years now to make up for temporary shortages, where she spends the night in a hotel.
After a long education career, she no longer needed all the management aspects that come with working in education. This made it difficult to find a suitable workplace. She now delegates all the arrangements to Derec and focuses solely on education. In this way, Van de Pas has been helping out for a few years now to make up for temporary shortages, where she spends the night in a hotel.
Although she has friends in and around The Hague, she hardly ever leaves her room at night. “I spend all my time on grading and lesson preparation.” The 'free hours' at school are also well filled. “I would like to support the section I am associated with as best I can, I think that is part of my scale. So if someone asks me if I happen to have a test lying around somewhere, I'll get to work on that.”
In all her years in education, Van de Pas has seen the teacher shortage increase. She has all kinds of explanations for this, such as the many temporary contracts, the limited salary and the feminization of education, which has caused the status of the profession to deteriorate. “When I started in the XNUMXs, I had one female colleague. We were 'the girls'.” She also saw many solutions reviewed, all of which did not have the desired effect. Are hotel stays now the egg of Columbus? Van de Pas: “Let me put it this way: this works for me. For me, this is the most enjoyable way to do the work I love.”
