The Court of Audit shows that hiring teachers is an expensive solution
Hiring teachers through external agencies is an expensive solution for secondary schools. This is evident from research by the Court of Audit. School boards usually do not negotiate rates with employment agencies.
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De AOb is against hiring external teachers and believes that employed work should be so attractive that all teachers choose this. “The real solution is to create attractive work,” says AOb-director Jelmer Evers. "This can be done by limiting the 'other tasks', more control, development opportunities, reducing workload, smaller classes and offering more flexibility in the organization of the work."
Hourly rates
For the first time the look of the Court of Auditors' investigators focused on the precise hourly rates of hired personnel and the difference with the costs for salaried employees. The Court of Audit made the choice to focus mainly on teachers in secondary education.
It was already clear that hiring teachers is not cheap. The AOb resistance been against it for years. Research of the Court of Audit now shows exactly how much more expensive it is. A school pays an average of 58 euros per hour for a teacher in the LB salary scale, step 12. If the school hires exactly such a teacher through an employment agency, the average is 113 euros per hour.
The Court notes that this extra money does not end up with the hired teacher in the form of a higher salary. This mainly concerns reservations that schools must make for continued payment during the school holidays, the profits of employment agencies and VAT. Schools do not have to pay VAT for employed teachers. Employment agencies do have to pay VAT and pass it on.
Hiring self-employed people is cheaper for schools than working through employment agencies, because self-employed people are exempt from VAT. Schools that do not hire self-employed persons directly, but through an intermediary agency, often pay a fee to this agency per teaching hour, the researchers report.
Negotiate
It is striking that school boards almost never negotiate about rates. “They accept the rates as proposed by external agencies,” the Court of Audit's study said.
School boards accept the rates as proposed by external agencies. They usually don't negotiate
Terms and Conditions
In addition to the hourly rates, which may differ per agency, schools have to deal with the general terms and conditions. These have also been examined in detail by the Court of Auditors. There are about fifty external agencies active and each has its own rules for taking over hired teachers by school boards. For example, they refer to the law which states that they can ask a school for a 'reasonable compensation'. One agency charges 15 percent of the hourly rate for the hours still outstanding, the other 38 percent. A number of agencies charge a fixed amount as 'reasonable compensation'. "This concerns 18 to 45 thousand euros for the permanent employment of a hired teacher," according to the Court of Audit. The number of months after which they can be employed also varies.
Doubled
Secondary schools resort to hiring much more often, the Court of Audit concludes. Over the past ten years, the share of PNIL (non-employed personnel) has doubled to 4,4 percent of total personnel expenditure. In 2013 it was still 2,2 percent. In total, secondary schools spent 2022 million euros on hiring in 370. Hired teachers account for half of this. Of the total personnel costs in 2022, 115 million euros went to temporary employment agencies for teachers and 16 million euros to self-employed persons. The Onderwijsblad previously examined the costs for employment agencies alone (without self-employed persons) and saw that they were significant more public money ends up at these agencies.
urgent shortage
There are several reasons why school boards choose to hire, the Court of Audit writes. Of course there is a teacher shortage, which means there are many vacancies, especially in the shortage subjects. Furthermore, absenteeism due to illness in this education sector is higher than the national average. According to the Court of Audit, the 8,5 billion euros from the National Education Program (NPO) made an additional contribution to hiring, because this is incidental money.
Schools cannot simply create additional positions at a higher scale
The researchers also spoke to teachers who consciously choose employment agencies or become self-employed. There are several reasons for this. For example, employment agencies can often scale teachers higher than school boards. "There are a limited number of positions per team in a certain scale," the Court writes. 'If a teacher wants to grow to a higher scale, this position must be available. Schools cannot simply create extra positions at a higher scale.'
Another argument is that some agencies are more likely to offer a permanent contract for an indefinite period. This gives teachers financial security. Self-employed people indicate that they want more autonomy, so they can decide for themselves when they work and when not.
Good employment practices
De AOb According to Evers, has been opposing the hiring of teachers for 20 years. According to him, the new law that deals with strategic personnel policy will help 'somewhat' to reduce this, because "it sets a clear standard for hiring". Replacement pools in which school boards work together are also a solution. “This way, starters can still get acquainted everywhere, but they are still employed by a school board,” says Evers. “You can also better deal with absenteeism due to illness.”
We must set frameworks: smaller classes, lower workload
According to the AObdirector, it is high time for better employment practices. “We have to set frameworks: smaller classes, a lower workload. Ensure that teachers have more say, put fewer other tasks on their plate, give them more flexibility and, where necessary, the option to start fifteen minutes later. Make sure people don't have to run away. Make it attractive. Now get this fundamentally in order, because that has not been the case for years. Employers have partly caused this problem themselves. They can finally show that they are serious in the upcoming collective labor agreement negotiations.”
Read more about hiring teachers The number of temporary contracts is growing in secondary education House of Representatives: targets for more permanent contracts Permanent contracts are under further pressure More public money to commercial employment agencies
