Education is far from out of the doldrums

Tekst Robert Sikkes - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 6 september 2019 - 6 Minuten om te lezen

Picture: Type tank

"I think we should just tell these people the honest story." These people are the more than 40 strikers last March at the Malieveld. The narrator is Minister Arie Slob. His honest story is that the cabinet is investing heavily in education. He cannot invest more than agreed in the coalition agreement. 'In a financial sense, I cannot set my pole any further than I receive from the coalition agreement and budgets from Parliament.'

Threat

The place of action is the House of Representatives, shortly before the summer holidays. The debate is over The state of education. Then annual report of the Education Inspectorate. There it is very hard: the teacher shortage threatens the quality of education and increases the inequality of opportunities. High time for political action, says PvdA MP Kirsten van den Hul. Look at the strikers on the packed Malieveld. What does the minister have to offer, she wonders.

But Slob remains the good performer of the policy agreed in 2017. 'I was not involved in the negotiations on the coalition agreement and I was confronted with the results, which I also signed, because otherwise I would never have been able to act as minister.

Slob remains the good performer of the policy agreed in 2017

Why does the minister no longer have money for education, trade unionist and MP Theo Thijssen wondered in the Lower House in 1938. 'There is no money, it is always relative. It depends on how high is considered the importance for which the money is asked. If there is a flood in our country, people do not ask whether there is money. '

If there is a flood in our country, people do not ask whether there is money

Eighty years later, that attitude has not changed. Because Minister Slob calls the teacher shortage a 'top priority', but apparently does not think the importance of education is great enough to make more investments in staff. Everyone knew that shortages in primary, special, secondary and secondary vocational education were coming. Just like the fact that educational salaries - for support staff and teachers - have fallen well behind the market during the crisis. Which in turn is avenged by the lack of interest in working in education.
Meanwhile, a lot of paper has been produced on how to tackle the shortage, but primary and special schools are still struggling to complete their formation. Secondary education sees more and more gaps in science subjects and languages. MBO is short of subject teachers. Despite all the action plans.

Education Minister Arie Slob remains the good performer of the policy agreed in 2017. (Image: Type tank)

Slobs measures build on the old Plan of approach for teacher shortage that his predecessors Sander Dekker and Jet Bussemaker presented shortly before their departure in 2017. This involves, among other things, recruiting lateral entrants and bringing back the silent reserve - people with teacher training who now work outside education. That hasn't had much success yet and apparently the minister is starting to get the hang of it. Because shortly before the summer, in addition to the teacher shortage consultation, an 'independent booster' was appointed 'to accelerate and intensify the approach to the shortages'.

Distant view

It is seldom about a significant salary improvement. Instead, ministers choose to flee forward with a battery of far-reaching reform plans. A complete overhaul of the curriculum. In addition, a total overhaul of the teacher training programs and the system of competences for primary, secondary and secondary vocational education.

The latter should facilitate switching from one sector to another and offer career prospects. Everything intended to make working in education more attractive. With the expectation that employers and trade unions will design one collective labor agreement with one wage structure for this. Of course, this prospect is not about extra money for that one wage structure - the responsibility of the minister.

Taboo

There seems to be a taboo on the s word, salary, at the ministry and most coalition parties. We also saw flight behavior at the VVD during the inspection debate shortly before the summer. "I do not believe that the problems can be solved with more salary and more action against work pressure," said the liberal MP Rudmer Heerema. He argued for a fundamental discussion about the design of education, or more talk as a solution to all problems.

There seems to be a taboo on the s-word, salary

CDA's Michel Rog avoided the subject of teacher shortage, despite the inspectorate's message about its seriousness. Let alone the salaries of teachers were discussed. Remarkable for a Member of Parliament who said before the elections at a meeting at the Ipabo in Amsterdam that the pay gap between primary and secondary education must be closed.
Only coalition party D66 now sought support outside the coalition because of the dramatically increasing deficit. Member of Parliament Paul van Meenen -present at the Malieveld last March 15- addressed the opposition parties. 'We will find each other at every opportunity, also during this cabinet term, to find extra money for education.' D66 also supported - against Slob's advice in the motion asking the inspectorate to monitor the teacher shortage.

Pole vault

Slob is of course also somewhat right: if a majority of the coalition does not see the importance of investing in education, there will be no money. But neither are you hearing that he and his colleague Ingrid van Engelshoven are hitting the table in the Council of Ministers to draw attention to the drama that is taking place in schools. In the debate about the State of education he came back a few times with the metaphor of the pole, where that fire to achieve more, in any case, did not say: 'This is how far our pole can go, but it is not at the beginning of the ditch. He doesn't quite make it to the other side when it comes to the ideals that exist. ' A pole slightly off the side with a jumping politician in it? That is asking for trouble. Who ever had a game proudly in Friesland knows that this will go wrong. That jumper lands inexorably in the water.

Pros and cons
The mantra of Ministers Ingrid van Engelshoven and Arie Slob is always that the cabinet invests a lot in education. And yes, especially in primary education extra money has been added. 270 million to partly close the salary gap with secondary education, but that was actually another measure taken by Rutte-II that was only implemented by Rutte-III. In addition, 430 million to relieve the workload. But money is also lost.
Shortly before the summer, it became clear in the spring memorandum that the efficiency discount - cutbacks because there are more pupils and students than expected and the Education Executive Agency has to replace ICT systems - must now be settled. A minus of 145 million. This is cut from the annual price adjustment in all education sectors and subsidies. The only exception is primary education, because the price adjustment must be paid there by law. This will be brought in in a detour by a discount on subsidies within primary education. For the funding of schools in other sectors, this means that they receive 0,2 percent less for the increased prices of their material.
The effect of the mediocre investment agenda in a flourishing economy is that, according to the Central Planning Bureau (CPB), the percentage of expenditure on education compared to increasing prosperity will continue to decline in 2019. In 2017 this was 5,2 percent; in 2019 this will be a maximum of 5,0 percent. Education is therefore not at the forefront of handing out the money, which according to CPB figures are defense, international cooperation and companies.