Social partners want research into a reduction in the hours standard
Research must be carried out into the reduction of the hour standard in primary education. The unions and the PO council, the representative of the school boards, want to discuss this with the Ministry of Education.
Picture: Type tank
Both parties write this in a letter to education minister Arie Slob. During the collective labor agreement negotiations, the unions already agreed with the employers' organization PO Council to examine the lowering of the hour standard and its effects.
Research
“In the Netherlands, teachers spend many hours in front of the classroom compared to other countries,” says AObdirector Eugenie Stolk. “At the same time, we also see that absenteeism and the number of burnout is significant. We want to see whether we can do something about the hour standard, so that teachers experience less work pressure and have more time for, for example, lesson preparation and professionalization. It is important, however, that a reduction should not affect the quality of education.”
Set hours
All schools in the Netherlands must adhere to the established number of hours. Pupils from group 1 to group 8 at primary school or in special education must receive at least 7520 hours of education. In the letter, the unions and the PO council point out to the ministry that much less teaching is given abroad.
The study must examine the difference between the hours standard in the Netherlands and those in other countries. And whether a reduction is possible and what effects this has on, for example, the workload. The parties would like to discuss the design of the investigation with the ministry.
Read the entire letter from the AOb, the other unions and the PO council through this link. It also contains the proposed research questions.
