Secondary education struggles with full classes and short courses
In secondary education, the classes are packed, the workload is high and schools are unable to find people for a growing number of subjects. The willingness to take action to strike 6 November is growing, more and more school boards are supporting staff in secondary education.
Picture: Fred van Diem
For example, Ewald van Vliet, chairman of the Executive Board of Lucas Education in The Hague, is experiencing problems with the subjects of Dutch and English. “We mapped out the shortage subjects for the whole of The Hague, and these two subjects stood out.” The lesson table plays a role in the workload. “There is quite a lot of teaching, if you want to bring that down you need more teachers.” And then Lucas Education is still in a big city where finding accommodation is difficult. “In my board I see that people are going to work outside the city, where house prices are lower. I find that understandable.”
Lucas Education covers 25 secondary schools, 46 primary schools and 7 special education institutions. The board did not continue to pay during the previous strike in March. “We wanted to wait for the education budget at the time. Now it appears that a little incidental money is added, you cannot conclude collective labor agreements with that. ”
A line
President of the Board Van Vliet says he has consulted with the administrators of another large school group in the neighborhood, VO Haaglanden. This school board, with a total of ten secondary schools, also does not withhold wages from teachers and support staff if they leave work. Van Vliet: “We have drawn one line. In primary education it is no longer five to twelve, but already five to twelve. The shortages can no longer be solved; it started as a quantitative problem, but now the quality of education is under pressure. We have therefore informed our staff that we do not cut salary. We understand that the need is urgent. ”
Now it appears that a little incidental money is added, you cannot conclude collective agreements with that
claim
There is AObchairman Liesbeth Verheggen agrees. Before the summer, she filed a claim together with the unions and employers an emergency kit of 423,5 million euros for all primary education. 182 million euros is needed in 2020 to reduce the workload in secondary education and to start reducing lessons. In this sector, the unions also want additional investments to attract staff to schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Strike en masse
In the south of the country at the Dendron College in Horst, pre-vocational secondary education to gymnasium, there is a great willingness to take action, notes physics teacher AObChief driver Ben Zwartjes. “I assume that our school is closed, but that is still subject to change. Many colleagues are members of a union and they want to go on strike en masse. ” Mainly because of the workload, according to Zwartjes. “I myself was out for six weeks and can now teach 9 of the 15 lessons. Still, I often sit at school longer than is right now and generally the classes are packed and the school often wants to organize all kinds of things around the curriculum, such as a recent performance about depression. That is useful and important, but it does mean extra workload. ”
Many colleagues are members of a union and they want to go on strike en masse
At his school they know the problem of the shortage subjects all too well. “Last year my supervisor asked if I would like to run an extra class for mathematics. That will easily take six months and then they asked later if I could take another class. ”
Sympathetic
English teacher Enna Egberts works at RSG de Borgen with five branches. She recently received an email from her board, Education Group North, that the board will continue to pay salary if there is a strike. “I find that nice,” she says. In the e-mail, the driver writes that he 'understands the purpose of the strike'. Egberts: “Due to appropriate education I have more students in the classroom with problems. I notice that I often cannot handle it, because then the next class is already at the door. I am off on strike day, but otherwise I would certainly have been on strike. I do plan to go to the manifestation in Leeuwarden. ”
In total, more than a thousand schools have indicated that they are closed to the strike in primary, secondary and special education. Are you on strike? Pass it on so that your school is on the card.
Want to know which school boards continue to pay? We keep a list. Check out the list through this link.
