More and more temporary jobs in primary education
This school year, 2749 full-time support staff were added to primary education. At the same time, there are relatively fewer permanent jobs. Eleven percent of the jobs for teachers are temporary, with support staff that share grew to a quarter.
Picture: Type tank
This is evident from an initial analysis by the Education magazine based on new figures that DUO published this week with the counting date 1 October 2018. The number of teachers in primary education has grown slightly by half a percent. In primary education this is an increase of 292 full-time jobs. That is a lot less than the school year before, when the increase was three times that.
The additional support staff are mainly in temporary employment contracts. The DUO figures say nothing about the type of employment - annual contracts, with or without the prospect of permanent employment. A quarter of the nearly 24 thousand FTEs of support staff in primary education are now temporary. Two years earlier that was still thirteen percent.
The share of permanent jobs is also shrinking among teachers. This school year, 1345 permanent full-time jobs were lost, a decrease of almost 2 percent. The slight growth in the number of teachers is due to the increase in the number of teachers with temporary jobs (+1800 FTE, more than 20 percent) compared to October 2017.
| Primary school | Teachers FTE | of which temporary% | Support staff FTE | of which temporary% |
| 2018 | 92.952 | 11,2% | 23.834 | 22,5% |
| 2017 | 92.499 | 9,3% | 21.085 | 15,9% |
| 2016 | 91.713 | 8,1% | 20.223 | 12,9% |
Source: DUO; editing the Education Magazine
Workload agreement
The increase in support workers is mainly in primary education, where 2421 FTEs (+21 percent) have been added. In special primary education, FTEs for support staff grew by 8 percent, in (secondary) special education by 3 percent.
School teams are taking advantage of the workload agreement to call in teaching assistants and other support staff - where available. Converted to the approximately 1,5 million pupils in primary education (including pre-university secondary education), one full-time support assistant per 545 pupils has been added.
Regional differences
The national figures conceal significant regional differences, which are partly related to demographic decline and other factors influencing the development of the workforce.
A week and a half ago, education minister Arie Slob already took to Facebook an advance on the figures, which were made public yesterday. He especially emphasized the 'hopeful signals' that he believes can be observed, including about the increase in support staff in primary education.
| 2018 versus 2017 | Teachers FTE | Support staff FTE | Management FTE |
| Primary education | +292 FTE (0,4%) | +2.421 FTE (20,6%) | -295 FTE (-4%) |
| Spec. base | +29 FTE (0,8%) | +118 FTE (8%) | -11 FTE (-3,6%) |
| So / vso | +132 FTE (1,3%) | +210 FTE (2,7%) | -17 FTE (-2,1%) |
| Total primary education | +453 FTE (0,5%) | +2.749 FTE (13%) | -323 FTE (-3,8%) |
Source: DUO; editing the Education Magazine
The teacher shortage manifests itself in, among other things, increasingly difficult or unfillable vacancies and problems in accommodating sick colleagues. For the coming years, the situation will only become more dire and all regions will be affected, turns out from various studies. A large group of teachers is retiring, the growth of new teachers will not be able to absorb that wave of departure.
