75 pct. of teachers intimidated by parents over kids' school advice

Over the past two years, three quarters of primary school teachers in the Netherlands faced intimidation from parents who wanted a higher school advice for their kids, according to a survey among 2 thousand teachers by union CNV Education and EenVandaag. Advice that a child should continue in vocational education is particularly badly received by parents, RTL Nieuws reports.

Since 2015 the school advice for a child - advice on what level the child should continue his or her education - is determined by the teacher instead of a final test. This clearly leads to conflict, the survey shows. Teachers are bribed, threatened or abused. There are even parents who threaten to take the teachers to court. 21 percent of teachers said that they've changed school advice due to intimidation.

CNV calls this a "completely unacceptable situation". Teachers are sometimes so intimidated that they consider leaving the school. And that at a time in which every teacher is needed, CNV Education chairman Loek Schueler said, according to the broadcaster.

PO-Raad, the sector organization for primary education, thinks that some conflicts can be prevented by keeping parents well informed about their child's progress from the first school year. "The school advice that a child gets in group 8 must not come as a surprise', PO-Raad said.

Minister Arie Slob for Primary and Secondary Education is committed to putting an end to the social trend in which vocational education is considered "not good enough". He recently called on parents to stop pushing their kids to get into a university. According to him, this puts unnecessary stress on children and casts vocational education in a negative light, while the demand for people with practical skills is only increasing.