Little enthusiasm for a longer working week in primary education
More than half of primary school teachers work part-time. Labor market platform PO conducted research into whether teachers would like to work more hours. And whether such a longer working week can be sustained in practice. Spoiler alert: it isn't for most.
Picture: Type tank
In the research by Labor Market Platform PO (APPO) published today does not include Education Minister Dennis Wiersma's recent plan for a full-time bonus. The exploration took place roughly between September last year and this spring. “The full-time bonus was not yet an official plan from the minister at that time,” said Mieke van den Berg of APPO.
A substantial proportion of teachers find the work too demanding for a full-time job
To some extent, the platform dived into the literature. The APPO noted four influenceable factors when it comes to extending the working week. A school can influence numbers 2 and 4:
1. Social Norms
Think of views on the division of care tasks and work, childcare, career and income, free time and part-time work.
2. How the work is organized
This concerns work pressure, job satisfaction, work-life balance, flexible working, personnel policy and discussions about the part-time factor. A substantial number of teachers find the work too demanding for a full-time job anyway, the researchers write.
3. National policy and collective bargaining agreements
For example, changes in child benefit, or in reimbursements for childcare and out-of-school care. But aligning salaries with teachers in secondary education or more extensive maternity leave can also have an effect on how many hours a primary school teacher wants to teach.
4. The stage of life
Where is someone in their career? Just at the start, family formation, are there informal care tasks, is there a reduction towards retirement? According to the researchers, the choice to work a certain number of hours strongly depends on the stage of life*In October, APPO published a study on sustainable employability. .
Part of the Exploration of part-time working and the possibilities of stimulating a larger contract was a pilot at four Lucas Education schools in The Hague, carried out by Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP).
Of 52 teachers who work part-time at these schools, thirteen started working more hours at the end of last year: that is 25 percent. Initially, three-quarters of that group structurally expanded their hours. The rest involved incidental hours extension, according to HPP.
Probably most of them couldn't keep up with the longer working week. One of the participating school leaders indicates in the APPO report that eight teachers have now indicated that they only want to work more temporarily. And one called in sick for the extra day.
I wonder if upshifting is a long-term solution
Negotiable
At this school, which is not mentioned by name, several colleagues confirm that working three days is a conscious choice. According to the interviewed school leader, they already work a fourth day unpaid: 'If they start working four days, they will therefore work a fifth day or at the weekend.' He also says: 'You can 'shift up' for a while, which is of course nice when we get into trouble. But I wonder if it's a long-term solution.'
Erika Kraai is director of the Haagse Carolusschool and also participated in the pilot. She leaves in one practical story mainly see 'starting a good conversation' as an advantage. 'As a school leader you can often say that 'everything' is negotiable, but employees often still experience a barrier.'
Kraai cites the example of a colleague who was about to retire. 'She wanted to continue working for another year, but she also wanted to be able to go on holiday outside the school holidays with her already retired husband. She had assumed that this wish could not be granted.' Once announced, it turned out that the schedule could be organized technically, so that the teacher can leave outside the school holidays and the school has a competent teacher for an extra year.
A solution has also been found for another teacher who wanted to work an extra day. She could not start that extra day until nine in the morning because she had to take her own child to daycare. Kraai: 'She also assumed that it wouldn't work anyway. But (…) on the day that she wants to work extra, a teaching assistant takes care of her kindergarten group for half an hour at half past eight (…). That appears to work well in practice.'
The labor market platform makes five recommendations:
• Start the discussions about the part-time factor from sustainable employability and work pressure
• Offer customization and be flexible
• Take into account the time investment required by schools
• Facilitate school principals
• Be open to opportunities to direct the pilot to other teaching staff in addition to teachers
Thijs Roovers of the AOb is also on the board of the PO Labor Market Platform. 'In my opinion, this exploration mainly underlines the importance of being a good employer and sustainable employability.'
You cannot expect teaching staff to solve the teacher shortage themselves by working more hours
But according to Roovers, it is even more important – before you make individual arrangements with employees – to remove 'the mother of all problems': the teacher shortage. “Educational staff have been going the extra mile for years. There is structural overtime and the shortages have long been a reason for colleagues to temporarily work more. The stretch is gone in many places.”
Political choices
Roovers continues: “You can't expect teaching staff to solve the teacher shortage themselves by 'temporarily' working more hours. The teacher shortage was caused by wrong political choices and can only be solved if good political choices are made now.”
Based on the same reasoning, chairman Tamar van Gelder announced last week in newspaper AD that the AOb against the full-time bonus is: 'People now work part-time because full-time is not feasible.'
