Researchers: 'Maintaining teacher grant crucial'
The Teachers' Scholarship with which qualified teachers receive money to follow a bachelor's or master's degree program works. The evaluation shows a 'positive picture', note researchers who believe that the grant should certainly be retained.
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Teachers find that the quality of education improves and that it helps them to practice their profession in the long term. Employers are also enthusiastic. That's in the report: 'Professionalisation and the Teachers' Grant' by research bureaus CAOP, Centerdata and Mooz.
The researchers examined the professionalization of teachers and conducted an evaluation of the Teachers' Scholarship. The grant was due to expire on April 1, 2022, but was extended for a year by education ministers Dijkgraaf and Wiersma last February to await this evaluation. Without intervention, the stock market have already disappeared† The ministers are yet to comment on the report.
Crucial
'Effective and efficient', according to the researchers, the Teachers' Grant is both. 'The perpetuation of the scheme is crucial.' It ensures more master's graduates in primary, secondary and vocational education, it increases the employability of teachers, it retains teachers for the profession and improves quality. The subsidy scheme improves the quality of lecturers and improves their position.
The continuation of the scheme is crucial
Furthermore, 80 percent of scholarship applicants graduate and a significant proportion are still teaching after five years. This chance is relatively greatest, especially in primary education, especially compared to MBO. Most teachers also indicate that they would never have followed the course without a grant.
The researchers have conducted a survey among grant applicants via the implementing agency DUO. These survey results have been supplemented with administrative data, in order to be able to evaluate the fair. 4911 applicants responded to the survey. Whereas in the beginning most applicants for the grant came from primary education, this has shifted from 2015 to a majority from secondary education. Those who are going to do an education are also relatively young. 'On average about ten years younger than the average teacher', the researchers write. Managers in higher professional education are more often urging their employees to apply for the grant. The survey states that in this sector there is more often a joint initiative (25 percent) between teacher and manager.
study leave
With the Teachers' Grant, teachers receive compensation for tuition fees, study resources, travel costs and school boards can receive compensation for appointing a replacement. The evaluation shows that applying for this study leave differs per sector. In primary education, school administrators use it the most with three quarters. At 58 percent, this percentage is considerably lower in MBO and 65 percent of employers also apply for the subsidy in secondary education.
The evaluation of the Lerarenbeurs shows that this scholarship has a unique and valuable position in the professional development of teachers
Then the study options. In primary education, two out of three teachers opt for the Educational Needs master. Their colleagues in secondary schools and in senior secondary vocational education (MBO) most often opt -bachelor and master- for a teacher training course. Employers are also positive about the stock market, interviews show that they think it gives an 'impulse'. They see that these teachers have more knowledge, have better career opportunities and they can deploy them more widely within the school. 93 percent of school leaders/administrators think the grant is a suitable instrument to promote the professional development of teachers.
Teacher Action Plan
The Teachers' Scholarship was part of the Teachers' Action Plan that the then minister Ronald Plasterk introduced together with the unions and employers. He wanted to use this to improve the quality of education and make teaching more attractive. The AOb was always in favor of the Teachers' Scholarship, certainly because it was the turn of the teachers themselves. So*You can find the archive of the Education Magazine via: www.onderwijsblad.nl said a French teacher in 2018 to the Education magazine that she was going to do the scholarship because she wanted to teach in the upper secondary education and therefore wanted to obtain her first-degree qualification. If you ask me if I have benefited from my education and the Teachers' Scholarship? Yes: I have been teaching French for years now, so I succeeded.”
The researchers also looked at professionalization in general. This shows that lack of time is the biggest culprit for continuing education. In primary education, half of the teachers indicate this as a problem, in higher education this percentage is considerably higher with 70 percent in HBO and 80 percent in WO. Also, many teachers are not well aware of the collective labor agreement agreements on training† It is striking that especially at universities, the right to reimbursement of training costs and development days is unknown.
Read also the other articles about the teachers' fair on this site.
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