Battle for Mathematics Teachers

Tekst Rob Voorwinden - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 1 juni 2017 - 6 Minuten om te lezen

A welcome bonus of six thousand euros. And ten thousand euros is ready for a computer science teacher. It will now be the most famous job advertisement in the Netherlands, that of the Andreas College in Katwijk.

This bonus is an additional incentive to apply, explains the director of the Andreas College in De Telegraaf, among others. And of course, it's tax money, so you shouldn't just throw that away. But math teachers are hard to find, and an ad campaign is more expensive.

German

But how big is the shortage of math teachers? Substantial, according to figures from Voion, the Labor Market and the secondary education training fund. The Voion calculated, among other things, how many mathematics teachers will retire in the coming years and how many new teachers will come onto the market.

The sum results in a national shortage of around 140 full-time mathematics teachers in 2020. Physics also scores high, with German at the top. But those are not core subjects.

"Mathematics is a core subject," says Swier Garst, chairman of the Dutch Association of Mathematics Teachers (NVvW). "

So it is very painful that there is such a big shortage. "I recently received a call from a journalist who was having coffee at the editorial office: none of our children have a qualified math teacher in front of the class, is that normal?"

twist turns

Sometimes yes. Although Garst knows that schools struggle to get or keep qualified teachers in their classrooms. "If you retire as a maths teacher, you will receive a phone call again in September: can you fill in? A school in Amsterdam recently even managed to get a 70-year-old. I sometimes say: you find more retired maths teachers for the class than in the old people's home."

Garst does not have a ready-made solution for the shortage, but: "Schools have to compete with the business community for mathematicians. That is why we should make it clear what is so much fun about education. That you enjoy getting on your bike every day, because at the end of the year your students know something they didn't know before. And that you managed to achieve that with those guys."

How are we going to communicate that? "At TU Delft they hold lunch lectures, where companies come to explain how nice it is to work for them. Can't a rector of a school drop by there?" However, rectors do not always run smoothly, says an education advisor who wishes to remain anonymous, criticism of customers is not always appreciated. "I also have a degree in mathematics myself and, in addition to my work as a consultant, was looking for a small job as a mathematics teacher. I applied to various schools, even had an interview, but I always heard afterwards that they had accepted a student."

remaining hours

On the one hand, the consultant understands that: "Jobs of five or six hours are leftover hours, of which you often do not know whether you will need them again in the formation the following year. So it is a risk to to hire a permanent teacher. But it's a bit sour for me to hear schools complain that they can't find qualified math teachers."

In the meantime, commercial parties are also responding to the shortage of mathematics teachers, Leraren in Actie points out in a letter to the House of Representatives:

Schools are approached by the Monday secondment agency with the offer to mediate in filling a vacancy. At a school that refused this offer, an offensive followed with champagne, chocolate and apples.

Schools have to pay a lot for the services of the agency: a seconded teacher is more expensive than an in-house teacher. 'The money that schools have to put into a desk like Monday does not end up in the classroom,' says Leraren in Actie. 'The primary process, for instance, is a victim of commercialism.'

Lease car

Twelve secondary schools, united in Semper Movens, wrote a similar letter to the Secondary Education Council at the beginning of April. 'Recruitment agencies offer teachers a permanent contract and a travel allowance, sometimes in the form of a lease car, even before they obtain their teaching qualification.' And a market-based salary, such as an LD position. 'The secondment company wants to empty the market in order to gain a monopoly on teachers in subjects with a shortage'.

The initiator of the letter, Gisela Assenberg, rector/administrator of the Alfrink College in Zoetermeer, is not angry with the Monday office. "As a commercial company, they make a smart choice. But, rounded off, I pay twice as much for their teachers as for my own teachers. Then I understand what Monday pays for that lease car and that LD position. And my great fear is that I will soon no longer be able to get my own permanent teachers, but will be left with a team of seconded freelancers."

monopoly position

'How do you assess the working method of the Monday employment agency, which exploits the lack of teachers for some subjects in secondary education?', the SP asks the Minister of Education. 'How are you going to prevent temporary employment agencies from acquiring a commercial monopoly position, with the result that schools spend a lot of extra money on hiring? Are you prepared to submit this way of working to the Netherlands Competition Authority?' The minister has not yet responded.

Monday responds. "Many things are said in which I do not recognize myself," says Nico Rijkhoff, marketing director of Monday. "We approach schools specifically to offer our services, but we really don't go around with champagne. On New Year's Eve we did visit a school with oliebollen, in a silver bucket that looked like a champagne cooler, maybe that's for confusion But that school was already a customer, so that was just relationship management."

And as far as 'emptying the market' is concerned: Rijkhoff does not expect his agency or other secondment companies to take up a monopoly position. "That will never come to that. A school simply needs a permanent team as a basis." But there may be situations in which a school needs a temporary teacher, for example during pregnancy or illness. And then Monday comes into the picture. "We can quickly provide a good, temporary professional teacher. And the people who are employed by us for this also find it fun and challenging to always work at different schools."

headhunters

In addition to secondments, headhunters are also entering the market for mathematics teachers. "I regularly receive Linkedin requests from recruiters," says Karin den Heijer, math teacher and board member of Beter Onderwijs Nederland. "There is a lot of pressure on teachers, also by the business community."

So let's clarify why education is so much fun. But then we also have to eliminate the negative aspects of education, such as the workload. With a full-time job you work around fifty hours a week. If nothing is done about that, you will soon only have crazy Henkie in front of the class.

"More salary and less work pressure and not just for teachers of mathematics", is the solution of AOb-chairman Liesbeth Verheggen. And don't sprinkle with bonuses. "As a board, do you have any idea what the consequences of such a bonus would be in the teachers' rooms, where there are also teachers who don't happen to teach in a subject that is in short supply, but who also do their very best? No, it's really about work pressure and salary. Bonuses are plasters on an open fracture."