Quarter of Dutch teachers home with Covid; No substitutes to be found

More and more schools in the Netherlands send classes home because teachers are home sick with Covid-19 or have to quarantine, and no substitute can be found. 23 percent of teachers in primary and secondary education are currently at home, the general association of school leaders AVS told NU.nl on Monday.

The AVS polled about 1,000 school directors. 90 percent said they couldn't find a substitute teacher. 60 percent of schools have sent one or more classes home in the past weeks.

"At the moment, the focus of many schools is to maintain education," AVS chairman Ingrid Doornbos said to NU.nl. "As a result, schools hardly get around to catching up on learning delays."

Absenteeism is even higher among pupils at 26 percent, even after the Cabinet relaxed quarantine rules for school children. Schools used to send a class home to quarantine after three or more infections. That rule has been scrapped. Pupils only have to quarantine when they test positive or have symptoms.

About 80 percent of schools manage to organize distance learning for absent pupils. But that is also getting harder and harder due to the teacher shortage.