Utrecht teacher shortage emergency plan: more money, more unauthorized people
The Utrecht school boards, teacher training colleges and the municipality are asking more than 15 million euros from the government to tackle the teacher shortages in primary education. The money must be used, among other things, for guiding starters and recruiting side entrants. According to the plan, however, there must also be more room for the use of unauthorized persons and experiments with teaching time.
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'Utrecht is now ringing the alarm,' says the Utrecht Leert action plan. 'The city is growing at a rapid pace and the demand for good staff for education is increasing even faster.' The Utrecht teacher shortages are, just like that of other large cities in the Randstad, however, run high. To solve this, the city is asking more than 15 million euros from the state.
Starter package
With this money, the municipality, school boards and teacher training courses want to create, among other things, a hundred learning-workplaces for side entrants every year, with accompanying guidance programs. Furthermore, a 'starter package' should be created to guide all beginning teachers, a labor market strategy should be developed to attract more teachers and a smart method of replacement should be devised.
All carefully crafted laws and regulations are set aside to get someone in front of the class - it doesn't matter who
In addition, the schools and the municipality want room to be more flexible with regard to the compulsory teaching time and to deviate from the legally permitted number of four-day school weeks. Finally, the school boards and the municipality also want room to deviate from the system of powers. This means that unauthorized persons must also be able to stand in front of the class, such as teacher support staff, teaching assistants, guest teachers or people who take care of the students instead of teaching them.
Recruitment
The use of unauthorized persons thinks the AOb highly undesirable. “The plan certainly contains a number of good measures,” says AObdriver Jelmer Evers. “Such as better guiding starters and investing in recruitment. But it is undesirable to put aside all carefully established laws and regulations just to get someone to teach - no matter who. In extreme cases, the lessons are even replaced by childcare. That is really disastrous for the quality of education. ”
Unauthorized persons
The Education Inspectorate agrees with it The state of education, which was published recently, concludes that the use of unauthorized persons in primary education is increasing. The lack of competence among starters rose from 10 to 25 percent. Some of these are students who have yet to obtain their qualifications, but 7 percent are not following a course and are not qualified. 'This development is undesirable, contrary to the law and may have consequences for the quality of education', is the harsh judgment of the inspectorate.
Border
AObdirector Evers thinks it is a good thing that Utrecht wants to do a lot of work to solve the teacher shortages. “But I draw a limit on the powers. Do not add water to the wine at this point. This is also at the expense of the reputation and attractiveness of the profession, and then you put the cart before the horse. Moreover, this makes the shortage invisible and removes the need to tackle it. ”
