Fewer lessons for students. That is one of the “painful and hard choices” proposed by the Education Council to deal with the growing shortage of teachers.
The outgoing minister Dennis Wiersma (Education, VVD) had asked the Education Council, one of the most important government advisers in the field of education, for a vision for the future: what would it mean for education if there were fewer teachers on a structural basis?
In the exploratory study published this Thursday, the Education Council sketches a gloomy scenario. The teacher shortage is already gigantic: primary education is almost ten thousand short of teachers, secondary schools have difficulty filling nearly two-thirds of their vacancies. After 2030 there will be even bigger gaps, the council says on the basis of new estimates. This is due to the aging population and a persistently tight labor market.
Despite all the alarming reports about this announced shortage, it has not been possible to find more teachers. “A lot has been thought up and done,” says Edith Hooge, chairman of the Education Council, “but it has not been enough. That’s swallowing.”
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Unauthorized class
Every parent recognizes the consequences: classes are sent home if the teacher is ill, secondary schools sometimes do not teach French or physics for months because there are no teachers for those subjects. In many schools, unauthorized persons, such as teaching assistants or volunteers, stand in front of the classroom.
The pressure that the teacher shortage puts on schools, school leaders (who are often only concerned with filling gaps) and teachers (who have to work harder) is so great that the Education Council is very concerned about the sustainability of the system. So interventions are now being proposed that until recently seemed taboo, such as fewer teaching hours. Hooge: “This is a difficult message, but it has to be done in order for education to continue. Get real.”
There is room to teach less, says the Education Council. Dutch pupils receive a relatively large amount of education compared to pupils in other countries: an average of 940 hours per school year in primary education (the average in OECD countries is 799) and an average of 1,000 hours in lower secondary education (OECD average is 799). 919).
Less ‘nice to learn’, more ‘need to learn’
Edith Hooge chairman of the Education Council
Furthermore, schools have been ‘overloaded’ in recent years with lessons on social themes such as climate or health. “We have to look at the curriculum again,” says Hooge. “Is it all necessary what we are doing now? We are not saying that things could be reduced a bit, but that we should be more critical. Fewer nice to learn, more need to learn.”
To relieve teachers, schools could make more use of teaching assistants or ‘professionals from outside education’ who can take over certain activities. Such as supervising tests, or organizing a class outing.
More inequality
The council also calls for ‘mutual solidarity’. Teacher shortages are unevenly distributed ‘along socio-economic lines’: schools in poorer neighborhoods in the big cities and schools in special education are much more affected. Students who need education the most will be hit the hardest.
Schools that are less affected by the shortages must find their teachers ‘willing to work (temporarily or partly) at another school’. Difficult choices, the council acknowledges, “because this obviously hurts the students, parents and colleagues of the school who ‘give up’ the teacher.”
Does curtailing education not lead to more inequality? Parents who can afford it are even more likely to resort to private education. Hooge: “There is a risk, but we have to do something. And each option has drawbacks.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on June 29, 2023.