There is no longer a teacher to be found and that is why children of Het Dynamica XL on Tjotterstraat in Zaanstad will only receive four days of lessons next year. Ellen Voskuilen, cluster director at Stichting Zaan Primair, thinks that more schools in Zaanstad will start the new year with too few teachers. “At the start of the new school year, I expect that not all groups will be able to go to school for five days.”
Dynamica XL already had to bring that message to the parents this week. The school on the Tjotterstaat provides special education to children who have difficulty with behavior and need more structure, says director Matthieu Wijhe. “It’s gone, even all the desks are gone,” he says after his long search for teachers.
Due to the departure of three teachers, he is forced to make the hard decision. “I am a father myself and I understand that it is very difficult.”
delete lessons
The 4-day school week has already been introduced at schools in Zaandam, usually for only a few weeks a year. The question is how much of the compulsory teaching hours schools should abolish this year. Previously, the minister indicates that it is forbidden to give too few lessons.
Like when Stichting Zaan Primair ignores the legally prescribed teaching hours. “We can’t do anything else”, says Voskuilen. “If you mess around here for five days, children will become unsafe and the education will be of less quality.” In addition, the school runs the risk that teachers leave earlier to another school.