Merel van Vroonhoven, who was appointed by the Ministers of Education as a driver for tackling the teacher shortage, warned about this during a briefing in the Lower House on Wednesday. The former top woman of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) switched to education herself last year and is currently retraining as a teacher in special education.
In the Lower House, Van Vroonhoven spoke about her findings, which she presented in the summer. Van Vroonhoven, who said he had spoken to hundreds of side entrants, believes that everything superfluous should be removed from the training for side entrants. “Don’t let people in their 40s fill out endless self-assessments, don’t let someone who has always worked at a company where English was the main language follow English.”
Full mailbox
Van Vroonhoven talked about her “full mailbox” in which she read a message from a PhD physicist. He is now retraining as a secondary school teacher of physics, but must demonstrate his research skills in his training. While he has been working on his PhD research for years. “They are treated according to a checklist and sometimes treated as a 19-year-old.” That has a demotivating effect, says Van Vroonhoven. She could “write a whole book about all the comments she received about it.”
She argues that the teacher shortage should be the absolute top priority. “We don’t want a benefits affair in education.” That also means, says Van Vroonhoven, that the “salary problem” must be tackled. Primary school teachers earn less than their secondary school colleagues, even though they all have a college education. “If you don’t address that, you’re not going to solve the teacher shortage.” This also applies to class size. “It won’t work if those classes stay that big.”
To the heart
Other matters, such as appropriate education and a revision of the curriculum, are secondary to solving the teacher shortage, she says. “Appropriate education is close to my heart. But I think of a curriculum review: is that really necessary now? ”
Van Vroonhoven expressed her irritation at the fact that the teacher shortage is now considered “almost normal”. “We find it normal that there is no teacher in front of the class, that no language teaching is given to children with a language deficiency because there is no teacher, that classes are sent home.”
Distressing shortage
It also disturbs Van Vroonhoven that there is still “no clear picture” of the teacher shortage, and that it is therefore also unknown where the problems are greatest and which children are the victims. “I understand that the House is also asking for that. I can only say: keep doing that. ”
According to her, there is no explanation for one school having to send students home due to a lack of teachers, while a school a kilometer away is not bothered by anything.
An underexposed problem is the “dire shortage” of school directors. Van Vroonhoven believes that more attention should be paid to this soon, because a school without or with a bad principal also sees teachers leaving faster.
