Teachers concerned about decline in educational quality

Tekst Karen Hagen - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 16 maart 2024 - 6 Minuten om te lezen

Image: XF&M

The concerns are evident from a poll by the AOb in association with Dutch news program EenVandaag, about which the TV program will broadcast tonight. For this study all AObmembers from primary and secondary education. In total, more than 2300 employees completed the questionnaire. The vast majority of these are teachers, but colleagues from management, support staff or another position also gave their opinion. 

Day and night

Half (51 percent) of those surveyed have 'quite a few' concerns about the quality of education; 39 percent say they worry a lot about it. 'It keeps me busy day and night. The quality, the erosion of education and the careless deployment of staff is a thorn in my side," said a heartfelt cry from a secondary school employee. A primary school teacher points out the questioning. 'Timetables are packed, just like the groups, with more care involved and many demands on education. Little rest in between due to the continuous schedule and much more administration and conversations. The preparation time for the lessons is less.'

It keeps me busy day and night

The level of the students is also a concern for teaching staff. A secondary school teacher: 'I teach Dutch, so I can say something about reading education: shocking.' A colleague from the economics department agrees and sees that HAVO 5 students find assignments for HAVO 4 very difficult.

I teach Dutch, so I can say something about reading education: shocking

High working pressure 

What doesn't help is the high workload. Almost everyone (91 percent) has to deal with this. One in ten teachers dares to honestly admit in the questionnaire that they are not capable of teaching well. The majority of this group attribute this to the workload at their school, the number of special needs students in the class and the class size. These three causes are also in the top 3 in their assessment of colleagues who, in their view, provide education that is of insufficient quality.

Overworking is the order of the day. Only 9 percent work the number of hours agreed in the contract. 15 percent work more than 8 hours of overtime per week. Just over a quarter of teaching staff do this 3 to 4 hours per week. 'There is not enough time to really prepare properly,' writes a secondary school teacher. 'Sometimes I am preparing or checking another lesson while students are working on their own. And then I always run out of time and have to work during the weekends.'

I sometimes sit and prepare or review another lesson while students are working on their own. And then I always run out of time

Almost 6 in 10 teachers believe that they have too little time for teaching themselves and that a good distribution is missing. 'I would like teaching and preparation and follow-up to be the main part of the work and that the other tasks: answering emails, meetings, all the administrative hassle of student monitoring systems, etc. would be reduced.' Many colleagues agree with this. 'Too many pointless tasks take too much time,' says a secondary school teacher.

In addition to the workload, respondents see that not all colleagues in the entire teaching team are sufficiently trained. In secondary education they are more critical about this than in primary education. For example, 20 percent of the 784 secondary school teachers surveyed indicate that the level of pedagogical skills in the team is insufficient. Specifically for reading skills (27 percent) and arithmetic (a quarter), this aspect is below par according to teachers. Almost 1 in 3 of the respondents from primary and secondary education qualify the quality of their own teaching team as 'good', 57 percent choose 'fairly good'.

Mentality and level

Secondary school teachers also notice that the level of primary school students when they enter secondary school is sometimes extremely low. "That gap can hardly be closed," writes one respondent. 'They have little or no ability to read with comprehension and they cannot write with a pen either.' They criticize the students' mentality in the open questions. For example, a secondary school teacher writes: 'I think that the mentality and commitment of students has changed and that parents are often less involved and place a lot on the teacher instead of providing a good foundation for their child themselves.'

The mentality and commitment of students has changed. Parents are often less involved and place a lot on the teacher instead of providing a good foundation for their child themselves

Capture

If the educational staff were in charge, it would quickly be determined the maximum number of students allowed in a class and the number of special needs students allowed. The Education Magazine published previously about appropriate education and the obstacles teachers face. This is reflected again in this poll. 'Too many special needs students, so the rest of the class doesn't get the attention.'

The administrative burden is another problem that they want to put a stop to. Furthermore, there is a great need to record what is meant by the pre- and post-work. In the youngest collective labor agreement for primary education AOb-director Thijs Roovers had this specifically written down. A teacher in secondary education writes: 'If at my school all other tasks - dean's office, care, management, school trips, surveillance, coaching, school parties, etc. - are done by non-teachers and every qualified teacher goes back to doing why he became a teacher. , there is no teacher shortage. Because classes are so full, people try to find more peace through tasks.'

Make it more attractive

“This research is unfortunately a confirmation of the picture we already know,” says AOb-chairman Tamar van Gelder. “And that is already very worrying. We had already fallen through the ice.” The AOb-Chairman says that everyone knows what needs to be done. “Educational staff provide that again to: time for teaching, smaller classes, fewer side issues, time and attention for special needs students and also professionalization so that you know what you can offer such students.”

The respondent AObmembers agree. They mention a combination of factors to make the profession more attractive and thus attract new colleagues. First of all, they want smaller class sizes. This option was checked most often, followed by fewer tasks outside of teaching and again fewer special needs students. Only then will a better salary come. More autonomy also scores well, as does more time for pre- and post-work.

Formation

Van Gelder points to the forming parties. “The challenges in education must be put on the list of the forming parties. They have a direct effect on everything in society.”