Difference in salary puts pressure on special secondary education
Teachers who work in secondary special education are still covered by the collective labor agreement for primary education. This makes it difficult for schools in VSO to find subject teachers.
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She did not even realize it when she switched to secondary special education (VSO) as a teacher. She entered LB scale, just like in her previous job, at a regular high school. LB is LB, right? Yes, but from a different CLA. For the terms of employment and task policy, VSO falls under the collective labor agreement for primary education. “I notice that many people still don't realize this,” says Loes Aarts. "Outside and inside the VSO."
All special education is part of primary education, a legacy from a distant past. As a result, teachers in VSO have to work up to 180 hours more than their colleagues at a regular secondary school. But they earn less, a gross difference of sometimes four to five hundred euros per month. “Teachers teach more and earn less”, Aarts concludes. "That cannot be explained."
Vacancies are sometimes out for nine months, or I don't get them filled at all
Now that she is location director, Aarts is facing the consequences. At her school, the Piramide College in The Hague, students with a physical disability or a chronic illness obtain a VMBO or HAVO diploma. In VSO you can teach the class with a PABO diploma. In order to properly prepare students for the exam, subject teachers are indispensable, argues Aarts. But second grade teachers are hard to find, especially first grade. "If a subject teacher has the choice between a VSO school and a secondary school, I know where he is applying."
Good teachers are drawn from all sides, according to Aarts. Especially in the deficit subjects. The location director sometimes tries to entice or bind teachers by offering something extra. She does not have much leeway. There is no extra money for it. And other teachers may feel passed over. “I understand that too. All teachers in my team deserve better. ”
Special secondary education is a relatively small and underexposed province in the world of education (see the infographic for an explanation and student numbers). An indispensable niche, according to Mariëtte van Leeuwen, director at Altra and Horizon Education in Rotterdam, responsible for 21 VSO schools. Her story is also alarming. “Vacancies are sometimes out for nine months, or I can't get them filled at all. This increases the workload for teachers, which in turn leads to higher absenteeism. Fortunately, there are teachers who feel so involved that they take that lower salary for granted. But enthusiastic teachers will also say: I have a family at home, I can use the income I am missing now. ”
Ultimately, the students are the child of the bill, warns Van Leeuwen. That is why the VSO director wants salaries and teaching hours to be aligned with secondary education. “Of course I support the campaigns to improve salaries throughout primary education. But I am afraid that it cannot be arranged just like that. The situation in VSO cannot wait. It is a relatively small group, which must be resolved quickly by the cabinet. ”
Sum
At the beginning of last year, chairman Paul Rosenmöller of the Secondary Education Council blogged something similar: 'Quite apart from the question of how justified it is that the differences in salary between teachers in primary and secondary education are significant, these are teachers who teach in secondary education. v(s)o. What would it cost to raise those salaries to the level of their colleagues in regular secondary education?' He promised to make a calculation, but nothing more has been heard of the outcome. There is also something else going on: a dragging administrative-political discussion about the position of special education.
In recent years, intensive consultations have taken place between the ministry and the sector councils. With the start of appropriate education in 2014, behind the scenes, under the direction of the Ministry of Education, an attempt was made to separate special education (SO) and VSO. So should be more closely linked to regular primary education, VSO should be transferred to secondary education. The VO council agrees.
The situation in VSO cannot wait
But VSO itself is divided, says policy advisor Albert Boelen of Lecso, the interest group for special education. The VSO does not exist. With three graduation profiles, there are visible differences in educational level: daytime activities, labor market-oriented and further education-oriented. Institutions in the latter category, which account for half of all secondary school pupils, prefer to switch to secondary education. This is different for daytime activities.
Boelen: “Think of children with a low IQ. The emphasis is on pedagogical guidance. Teachers often have a PABO diploma and many pedagogical assistants work there. Those schools say: should we therefore also start working with the salaries from the collective labor agreement for secondary education? And what is the added value of a first or second degree subject teacher for this student? Because if you transfer VSO to secondary education, the qualification requirements for secondary education also apply. Unless you arrange otherwise. ” Practical education proves that it is possible. This has already been transferred from primary to secondary education.
In the meantime, school boards have set to work themselves to determine how they want to organize appropriate education in their region. Nevertheless, there is a need to make a national decision, which is expected to happen before the coming summer.
double
De AOb does not formally sit at the table on that decision, but follows the discussion closely. "There are still a lot of questions," he said AObdriver Eugenie Stolk. "We need to look carefully at how everything is arranged with the different powers for primary and secondary education." And are secondary education salaries affordable for secondary schools? “This is only possible if the cabinet allocates extra money for it. We are currently campaigning to improve salaries throughout primary education. But indeed, it is a crazy situation that VSO schools have to entice subject teachers with a collective labor agreement for primary education. These are vulnerable students, they should not be the victim.
Teacher and location director Loes Aarts is not reassured. “Boards look at the minister, the minister at boards. And teachers can only wait. My son works at a regular secondary school. How long will you stay in secondary school, he sometimes teasingly asks. "You are crazy not to switch." But yes, the students eh. I cannot abandon them. ”
This article appeared in the Education Magazine of February 2018.
