'Partly online lessons will remain for a while – but teachers want to decide'

Tekst Redactie Onderwijsblad - Rob Voorwinden - 6 september 2021 - 5 Minuten om te lezen

Image: Pixabay

Those are two important lessons from a survey of the AOb among teaching staff in MBO, HBO and WO. The survey was completed by 2500 people.

Almost all employees in the three sectors have now been vaccinated, according to the figures: the vaccination rate has risen from 92 percent in MBO to 97 percent in university education. However, only about twenty percent of the respondents feel completely safe in their workplace. The rest doubt or feel downright unsafe.

In many rooms there are two small windows that are definitely insufficient for ventilation

This unsafe feeling is partly caused by lack of clarity about the ventilation. The vast majority of the respondents (70 to 90 percent) indicate that it is not in order at their workplace.

'Very bad ventilation', says an intermediate vocational education teacher. 'In many classrooms there are two small windows that are definitely insufficient for ventilation,' reports an HBO lecturer. 'In a quarter of the classrooms, a side panel has been removed from the wall, but it ventilates with another interior space - so that no fresh air enters.'

Working conditions Service

In many cases, the management has reported to the staff that ventilation is in order. But not everyone trusts that. 'The faculty itself says that the ventilation is good,' says an employee at a university. 'But I'm curious if an employee of the health and safety service would notice the same.'

'I have no idea how the rooms can be ventilated', one of the respondents says honestly. 'And I also have no idea how I can see or smell whether the ventilation is sufficient'. Make CO2 meters mandatory, another suggests. 'That does happen in Belgium! Good ventilation is the most important investment against covid there is.' The AOb has a ventilation manual for mbo, hbo and wo released.

Autumn

More than half of the respondents expect to be able to teach both physically and online this autumn: from 50 percent of MBO staff to 70 percent of university staff.

In the first place, according to many respondents, online education is still necessary to prevent infections. "Despite being fully vaccinated, I can still get corona and pass it on to my partner who is very vulnerable," says an MBO teacher who likes to continue teaching online as much as possible.

'I'm dreading having to teach in full classes again,' says another. “Not all students are vaccinated,” says a third. “And we have cramped rooms. I have a safer situation online.'

Let's keep the positive elements of past months. Some lessons are best done online

A second argument for online lessons is that it can also offer benefits. 'We have learned that blended education, half of the lessons at school and the other half at home, can work fine', says one respondent. 'In the business world, many people already work from home for part of the week. Let's teach our students that already.'

'Over the past year, we have invested in online education and blended learning,' says another contributor. 'Why throw this form of education overboard again?' "I don't understand why we don't keep the positive elements of recent months," said a third. 'Some lessons are best done online.'

'Physical education is being idealized', says another teacher. 'Not all students want to go back to school completely, not all education was worse online. I've seen wonderful things happen online, let's hold on to that innovation.'

Workload

However, many respondents also indicate that hybrid education, where half of the class is taught live and the other half is simultaneously taught online, greatly increases workload.

'Hybrid education costs a lot of extra time and energy, which is not compensated by the institution. The factor for lesson preparation should be adjusted so that the teachers don't have to do everything in their own time.'

I'm a teacher, not a YouTuber!

'The extra workload due to the combination of online and offline education is not taken into account at all,' says an employee of a university. 'Nothing has been done to prevent an actual doubling of the teaching task', says a third respondent. 'Hybrid education is not a sustainable alternative', says a fourth person who completed the survey. 'It makes teachers overworked.'

Office garden

Many respondents believe that teachers who want to provide online education should also be given the technical options. And that's still not going well. 'Online teaching or meetings are not facilitated. Working online is not possible in an open-plan office.' 'There are hardly any facilities to be able to teach online at school', says another. 'No second screens, no rooms for students to follow the online activities.'

The red line in all answers is that every teacher has their own reasons for teaching online or in person. The teacher teams must therefore always have the first and last word in this decision AOb. And not the management or executive board.

Unfortunately, the practice is sometimes different. At the beginning of this week it turned out that the management of, for example, some ROCs want to oblige their teachers to partially teach online. And often not for educational reasons, say respondents in this survey.

I am afraid that the board will push through online education to save costs

'Online education is sometimes assumed as a cutback on classrooms,' says one of the participants. 'With us, twenty percent of the lesson has to be online,' says another. 'Not for health reasons, or as an educational or didactic choice. But as a cost saving on buildings.'

'I think it's a shame that my educational institution has chosen to continue teaching online due to budget cuts,' says an MBO teacher. 'Not good for the students, and not good for the teachers who have to switch from online to physical classes.'

'I'm afraid that the board will use this situation to push online education through, to cut costs,' said a third. 'But I'm a teacher, not a YouTuber!'
'Physical lessons and online lessons both have advantages', one of the respondents summarizes the discussion. 'Let everyone make his or her own choice.'