The Dutch Education Crisis

Teachers across the Netherlands will be out on strike on Wednesday 6 November. The issues in the education section are being described as a national disaster. A crisis. A catastrophe. Here’s the low down of what’s currently happening in the Dutch education system.

Teachers and Strike Action

Any of you with children in Dutch schools will know that this is not the first strike action to take place in the Netherlands in recent months. The teachers were out on strike in March this year, as well as a number of times last year. However, it actually began in 2017 in the primary education sector.

On March 15 2019 teachers from all education sectors were to be found on the Malieveld in The Hague. It was the widest reaching strike action within the Dutch education sector of all time. It’s no longer just about primary education – it’s secondary and higher education too.

Tomorrow, the story is similar. It’s a national strike crossing all levels of the Dutch  education system. Teachers will join together and leave more than 3300 schools and education institutions closed.

So why are teachers taking such drastic action? Three reasons: the shortage of teachers, their work load and the level of salaries.

If you want to read about the reasons as written by a Dutch teacher then I recommend you read this post: TOPPRIORITEIT (in Dutch).

This video “Lerarentekort in het basisonderwijs – Zondag met Lubach (S10)” is also worth watching. Entertaining with a serious message!

Teacher Shortage

According to the Algemene Onderwijsbond (Aob) (prominent teachers’ union) four in ten schools are battling with a teacher shortage. In special education this rises to a third of schools, leading to waiting lists and big classes.

59 kids in a class or no teacher in front of the class at all – real stories from parents across the Netherlands (in Dutch).

In the big cities in the Randstad (Noord Holland and Zuid Holland) the number of open vacancies that cannot be filled continues to rise, as teachers leave schools in these areas.

Emergency Measures to Tackle Teacher Shortage

Schools across the country are being forced to take emergency measures.

• Unqualified personnel are teaching children (check out the statistics here for insight into onbevoegde numbers in primary education).
• Part timers are being ‘asked’ to work more hours.
• Student teachers and teaching assistants are standing in front of classes. Alone.
• Those that indicate they are going to start teacher training are already in front of classes.
• School counsellors and directors are in front of classes.
• Classes are being sent home. (In week 42 this year 1455 children were sent home according to these submitted figures.)
• Teachers are being brought back out of retirement.
• Classes are being merged.
• Parents with teaching experience are stepping in to fill gaps.

One Montessori school in Amsterdam announced last month that the school will close, citing the teacher shortage as the reason. No one doubts it will be the last.

Other measures being discussed is a four day school week and raising the starting age of school to five, instead of 4 as it currently is.

Government Action to Address Teacher Shortage

If your Dutch is up to scratch you can read here the government measures being taken to help the teacher shortage.

For example, the government has made subsidies available to teaching assistants to train to become teachers.

Here’s another solution, according to the rijksoverheid:

“Scholen kunnen hun onderwijs anders organiseren. Dat kan op een manier waarbij met minder leraren voor eenzelfde hoeveelheid leerlingen wordt les gegeven (bijvoorbeeld in units). Het kan ook op andere manieren.”

Rightio. Problem solved then, teachers just need to teach the same number of kids in a different way. Insert eye roll here.

Structural changes are needed.  The AOB state that 4 billion euros are needed for this.

Overcrowding in the Classrooms

The teacher shortage is leading to many issues. One of them is overcrowding in the classrooms.

I wrote about this topic back in 2017. It’s not a 2019 issue.

Teachers have been crying out for years about the problems of classes that are too big to provide quality education for. Read Stop the Overcrowding in Dutch Classrooms for lots more on this. I know all about having kids in big classes and it is not fun.

In short, schools are expected to provide the same quality of education to the same number of pupils with fewer teachers.

You do the maths.

The quality of our kids’ education inevitably suffers. And no teacher wants that. No parent wants that.

Why is There a Shortage of Teachers?

Teaching has become unattractive. Conditions are not attractive. It’s a career with low pay and an almost guaranteed burn out.

In particular, the teaching profession is not attracting males. Forty years ago there were roughly equal numbers of males and females in the profession. Today a child is lucky if they see a meester at all in their primary education years.

The work stress that teachers face in their careers has become infamous. Big classes means more work for teachers. That’s the bottom line.

I was talking to one of my son’s teachers yesterday and he stated (yes, he!) that it’s not just about salaries. Some teachers don’t want more money – they just want help in their classroom!

Any of you with kids in Dutch schools are probably used to receiving emails from teachers sent at ungodly hours, well beyond the hours school is open. Lesson planning, communication with parents, marking, administration – it’s all done in the evenings. From home.

Teacher burnout is high. Really high.

Kids coming out of secondary education are simply not choosing teacher training courses (PABO) in the number they once were. And why would they?

Teacher Salaries

Salaries in primary education have fallen behind other professions in recent years, and the money set aside recently by the government to address this was by far not enough.

Teachers are leaving big cities because their salary doesn’t cover living costs. That’s the bottom line.

So What Happened Last Week? The Strike Was On and Off and then On Again

Last Friday the Dutch government announced an ‘extra’ 460 million euro investment in education. The AOB declared the strike off and then hell broke loose. Teachers heard from the media first that the strike had been called off – and not from the union. It took the union a couple of hours to communicate to their members.

AOB members were furious that they had not been consulted. Members were furious that the union had agreed to this one off injection of funds and announced it as a victory.

They were also verbijsterd that the strike action was called off as if all the issues in the Dutch education sector are solved with 450 million euro. Remember the estimated pot of money needed that I shared above: 4 billion euros. Structural changes need to be made in Dutch education, which throwing this particular money bag at does not solve. It sounds like a lot but it’s the tip of the iceberg.

Trappen we erin?

Het onderwijs stond 20-0 achter, nu staat het 20-1 en gaan we als blije eieren terug in ons hok? Niet als het aan LIA ligt!

Ons kent ons in bestuurlijk Nederland, daar bedoel ik ook de traditionele onderwijsbonden mee, ze naaien de leraren in het pak, weer. 1/6

— Leraren in Actie (@Lerareninactie) 1 November 2019

The leader of the AOB union, Liesbeth Verheggen, has since resigned.

It was then announced that the strike will go ahead.

So if our experience was anything to go by you likely first had a message from school saying that the school would be open Wednesday. And then a message shortly after saying that the strike is going ahead and school will, after all, be closed.

In the case of our secondary school the events of the last few days seem to have spurred even more education staff into taking action. Last week the message was that some teachers would be striking and lesson rosters would be filled in as best as possible. The message yesterday was that school is closed.

What Can You Do As a Parent to Help or Show Your Support for Teachers?

This isn’t an issue that just effects teachers. It impacts us all. In her post linked above, Catriona puts it wonderfully:

En ik roep mijn collega’s op om de staking ook te steunen. Ik roep ouders op om op te komen voor de toekomst van hun kinderen. Ik roep leerlingen op om te eisen dat zij niet vergeten worden. Ik roep bedrijven op om te waarborgen dat hun toekomstige arbeiders de opleiding kunnen krijgen die ze nodig hebben.

Topprioritiet

• Firstly, tell teachers you support them and the action they are taking.
• Join the teachers. There’s a list here of all actions happening across the country tomorrow.
• Offer to help other parents out if strike action causes other parents child care issues.
• Be a hulpouder. If a teacher sends out a message asking for parental help for an event etc then give up your time if you can. They don’t ask for the sheer hell of it.
• Offer help if you have the time. Ask if you can help out with something. you never know until you ask.

How else can parents help?

Over to You

What impact is the education crisis having on your child’s school? Do you support the strike action? Share your experiences and stories below.