The Council of Ministers is also considering introducing legal requirements for quality employment in schools.
According to Education Ministers, the shortage of teachers is serious and is getting worse every day. There is a shortage in primary education of 9,100 full-time teachers, and in secondary education of 1,700 teachers. “Each day teachers, students and parents notice how subtle the teacher shortage is disrupting the classroom, the school and the future of students. So we don’t have the luxury of creating taboos, we also need to discuss sensitive topics quickly,” Minister Warsma said. Ministers suggest social dialogue, via state meetings And via social media.
Reforming the way we finance education in the Netherlands has always been a sensitive issue in the education world. Schools have real freedom when it comes to the money given to them by the government, there are no conditions attached to it. Dijkgraaf and Wiersma are now considering changing this. “Because of the way schools are now funded, there is no incentive to jointly solve the teacher shortage problem in the district,” they wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives. They want to build more “financial incentives”. How do they do it, they get away with it. They want to discuss it with the educational field and other stakeholders. Additional funds may be considered for areas where teacher shortages are most severe, and therefore less for areas where things are going well.
dilemma
Another thorny issue is the unqualified teachers in the classroom. Now that the teacher shortage is so great, it is growing. Meanwhile, this nibbles the picture of education, which in turn can lead to fewer new teachers enrolled. Dijkgraaf and Wiersma also want to have a strong discussion on this dilemma.
Then there is the way some schools treat their teachers. Things don’t always go well, see Wiersma and Dijkgraaf. So they are thinking of putting new rules of the game into law. This is about, for example, offering better contracts, more development opportunities, and better guidance for beginners.
Earlier, it was decided to allocate more money to education. To this end, the Education Agreement was concluded in April. The government then issued 1.5 billion euros, including significantly higher wages and an additional allowance for teachers in schools with many vulnerable students.
