Extra use of part-timers and division of classes
On Friday most classes are sent home, on Wednesday part-timers most often work an extra day to make up for teacher shortages. This is shown by the figures of almost a year of registration on the website Valentijnisnu.nl. The AOb calls on all members to continue to report class cancellations and the solutions. "This is the only way we can make the consequences of the shortage visible," says Eddy Erkelens, initiator of the site.
Image: Lerarenkortisnu.nl
Erkelens started the site in January and collected data from more than 17 reports of classes where a teacher was missing. At least 400 students did not receive the education they were entitled to for one or more days. It remains important to make reports, emphasizes the AOb, to make the seriousness and extent of the shortfall visible. Missed classes at your school? Report it through this link.
Schools solve the problems with absenteeism and unfilled vacancies with a mix of measures, although there are national trends per school day. Sending children home is most common on Fridays. On Wednesdays, schools are most successful in allowing a part-timer to work an extra day.
Effort
With 17 percent, extra deployment of part-timers most often helps to ensure that lessons continue for the students. Eerkelens also notices that group 3 is spared the most: those groups are less often confronted with emergency measures. "Most classes are divided on Mondays," he continues. "Perhaps because a replacement cannot be arranged at the weekend yet."
How do schools solve student dropout?
| 17 percent | Part-timer day extra |
| 16 percent | divide class |
| 15 percent | Class home |
| 15 percent | unauthorized |
| 14 percent | Other |
| 13 percent | Management or internal supervisor |
| 6 percent | Secondment agency |
| 3 percent | Retired |
| 0,5 percent | Parent with teaching qualification |
There are also local trends. Schools in Amsterdam and The Hague, for example, call a secondment agency more often than in other places in case of problems, in 16 and 11 percent respectively of the cases. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Haarlem are frontrunners in the deployment of unauthorized persons in the classroom, in more than a quarter of the cases. Lelystad invests most heavily in dividing classes without a teacher among other groups, which happens in one third of the cases.
flu wave
According to Erkelens, the shortage is getting bigger and schools that can no longer make ends meet are increasingly in the news. Teachers will be exhausted, especially during a flu wave, now there is still a reserve of part-timers, substitutes and secondment agencies. "We have not yet had a flu wave this year, so as soon as it occurs, more students will be sent home."
