Teaching staff do not want colleagues without a diploma
Teachers, school leaders and support staff do not like the use of unauthorized persons to solve the teacher shortage. If the quality of education is to remain the same or better, then well-trained teaching staff is a must, according to the profession.
Picture: Type tank
This is evident from one investigation which is more than 8500 AObmembers in primary and secondary education have completed. The outspoken 'no' to teaching without the right piece of paper becomes more pronounced as the level of education of the unauthorized persons decreases. School leaders and educational support staff are more likely to see a role for unauthorized persons than teachers.
Less time with more responsibility is asking for idle time
One of the contributors writes:You cannot expect the same level in less time and with less competent people. This is a daily challenge for today's teachers. Giving them less time, but more responsibility to direct others and to be ultimately responsible for this is asking for an empty education.'
AOb- chairman Tamar van Gelder: "Working in education is a profession, a wonderful profession that we are rightly proud of. For that you have to be well trained and do it together with your colleagues. You don't just learn to teach students well. With well-trained colleagues in your team are the best."
De AOb sees that in many schools the support staff, such as a teaching assistant, have to run a class independently. Van Gelder: "That is not good for three reasons. The teaching assistant cannot do his or her normal work, that person is not paid for it and has not been trained for it."
She continues, "Compare it to a dentist and a dental assistant. Who wants to be drilled by the dental assistant who suddenly has to do the job on his own without a dentist?"
experiments
Currently find numerous experiments place where rules for teaching time are loosened. Both the interpretation of the hours that students spend at school, the number of compulsory hours and who provides the lessons are under discussion.
Last month, for example, the labor market platform Voion held so-called dialogue sessions about teaching time. A participating secondary school policy officer said on Twitter that his 'ears were chattering' about the learning plazas, personalized learning and thinking outside the box.
At the same time, 'quality of education' is printed in bold at the top of every education plan from The Hague. And education minister Dennis Wiersma wants to quickly take 'unorthodox' measures to combat the teacher shortage. Van Gelder: "We have been warning for years about the situation in which education is now finding itself. Of course, quality must always be the starting point in all plans. At the same time, we know that in the current state of education can no longer deliver that quality. It is a bitter truth, but also necessary to be clear about it."
The survey 'Teaching time and lesson task, what do the teaching staff think?' is intended to provide Wiersma and employers with input from the professional field. Van Gelder: "We will include the results in consultation with OCW and employers. And in our lobby to The Hague."
Conditions
De AOb prepared an extensive questionnaire, with all kinds of topics that touch on teaching time. Think of preconditions for good education, the use of unauthorized persons, the content of the curriculum and the teaching duties of teachers and control.
The vast majority of teaching staff believes that three conditions are important for good education:
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Education is always given by a qualified teacher
This is the opinion of 75 percent of staff in primary education (PO) and 64 percent in secondary education (VO).
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Education takes place physically and not online
According to 82 percent (po) and 81 percent (vo) of the respondents, lessons should take place in a room where students and teachers and support staff are physically together, not via a screen.
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Classes must have a maximum number of students
The cabinet must set a legal maximum for group size. That's what 79 percent of the AObmembers in primary education and 84 percent in secondary education.
Read more about how a smaller class can close the teacher leak.
Other preconditions that teachers and support staff often mention are more hands in class, a maximum number of special needs students per group, focus on the core objectives and being critical about which lessons are and are not necessary.
More teaching time
Some secondary education teachers also indicate that teaching time should be increased rather than reduced, because student performance is falling and because of the consequences they see for students of the many missed (physical) teaching hours due to corona.
Check out the entire investigation
