General

'We have been deceived'

Of the 82 million that was available for the teachers' grant last year, only 4,5 million euros remained, the Education Magazine discovered. Nevertheless, The Hague decided to cut the budget by 28,5 million to finance side entrants and teaching assistants. Members of Parliament feel fooled and demand a solution from the minister.

Tekst Joëlle Poortvliet - redactie Onderwijsblad - - 4 Minuten om te lezen

of-mean-by-aob-debate

Statue: AOb

Paul van Meenen, Member of Parliament and education spokesman for coalition party D66, is to say the least not amused. He signed one in late 2019 voorstel to transfer millions of euros - earmarked for the teachers' grant - to the budget for lateral entrants and teaching assistants. But only, says Van Meenen, 'because the minister assured us that there would be enough money left over for teachers who want to study'.

There must be a solution

Together with Member of Parliament Michel Rog, Van Meenen wants to find a solution for the more than 2400 teachers who missed the grant before the summer recess ends. "I can't pull twenty million out of my hat in one go, but I do expect a solution from the minister."

Yesterday, CDA MP Michel Rog in the Parool know to be amazed at the large numbers of teachers who were rejected. Lisa Westerveld of GroenLinks is also angry. “I'm just wondering: did we miss something? But the minister's line has been this all along: it's about under-exhaustion. This means that it is expected that less money would be needed for the teacher scholarship, that money could then go to the fight against the teacher shortage. Of course we were all for that. ”

Almost three quarters of the new applicants did not receive the grant

Hardly a chance

Of the applicants this year, 2416 people were ultimately rejected, these are figures from August 3, 2020 *. That is almost three quarters of the teachers who applied for the first time. Teachers from MBO in particular hardly had a chance. DUO confirms that the pot for MBO was already empty within an hour. After the applications for extension of a study were approved, there were only 34 grants to be awarded.

In primary and secondary education, it took up to ten days to reach the ceiling. But this has been reasoned afterwards. “For example, if a repeat application was submitted in June, this was at the expense of a first application,” says DUO. On average, according to the implementing body, approximately 11.000 grants are requested per teacher. A maximum of 7.000 euros for tuition fees and the remainder for study leave, with which the employer can arrange replacement.

Teachers Scholarship 2020 first applications submitted submitted repeat applications total applications submitted first applications awarded assigned repeat requests totally awarded totally rejected
PO 1096 990 2086 290 986 1276 810
VO 1298 1747 3045 465 1751 2216 829
MBO 548 565 1113 34 566 600 513
HBO 355 337 692 88 340 428 264
Total 3297 3639 6936 877 3643 4520 2416

(source DUO)

Everything indicates that the minister knew that there would be far too little money for the 2020 stock exchange annual report of 2019 published by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It states that in 2019 there was a windfall on the teachers' grant of 'only' 4,5 million euros. Nevertheless, this year 28,5 million was cut from the Lerarenbeurs. Now, the enthusiasm for the grant has been declining for a few years - 10779 applicants in 2017, 8251 in 2018 and finally 6936* applicants in 2020 - but certainly not so fast.

In February, Minister Slob answered a question from Member of Parliament Roelof Bisschop of the SGP: “It is not correct that money is suddenly being taken away from the purpose for which it was intended. (…) You know how it works with under-depletion: if you notice at the end of the year that something has not been used, it goes to the treasury. Now we could keep it for education and use it in a good way. This is how one should see it (…). ”

Cash flow blunder

The consequences of this cash-flow blunder are now painfully clear. In the Parool article from Hanneke Keultjes primary school teacher Erwin Wezendonk speaks. He says that he has been teaching for years, but doubted whether he wanted to continue. The prospect of studying pedagogy at the AUAS gave him new motivation. But little of that good cheer has been left since the scholarship was rejected. “The tuition fees are not the problem, but the grant would also give me a day's study leave and therefore work less. If I have to pay for that myself, I will not be able to make it financially ”, says Wezendonk in het Parool.

Also with the AOb come in questions from members who have been rejected from the scholarship. AObdriver Jelmer Evers. “Money needs to be made to get these people started. And what I said last week: I find it incomprehensible how this went. The teacher fair is very popular for incumbent teachers. If you want to keep them for the profession, you have to focus on this. ”

Application period

Why the Ministry of Education stuck to a three-month application period, causing rejections to pour in in mid-summer, is unclear. Questions about the knowledge that the minister already had about the inadequate budget and misleading information from the House have not yet been answered.

* Figures are preliminary. In recent years, between 800 and 1000 teachers have decided to return their awarded grants every year. In addition, between 200 and 400 people have been rejected in recent years because they submit an application with invalid education, have already used up their entitlement, are not authorized, the employer is not funded or submitted too late. The latter group was immediately refused with the application this year due to the commissioning of a new system at DUO. No separate figures are currently available for this group. (source: DUO)

Also read: 'The teacher fair is over'

CDA, D66, GroenLinks and the SP stated last week Parliamentary questions about the state of affairs regarding the teachers' fair.

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