Concerns over teacher shortage undiminished as school year starts for kids in central NL

The new school year starts for primary- and secondary school pupils in the Midden-Nederland region this week. And as kids return to class, many schools are still trying to fill gaps in their rosters as the teacher shortage persists, NOS reports.

According to labor market estimates commissioned by the Ministry of Education at the end of last year, the teacher shortage in primary schools stood at 9,700 full-time jobs (FTEs). The school leader shortage stood at 1,100 FTEs. In secondary education, there was an estimated shortage of 2,177 FTEs for teachers and school leaders.

Teacher vacancy website Meesterbaan currently has over 3,400 vacancies online, the majority in secondary education. “Every year, we are amazed that more vacancies are posted. In the first six months of this year, we had 35,000 vacancies. Last year, there were just under 30,000,” Danny Smulders of Meesterbaan told NOS.

The vacancy peak season is getting longer and longer. It used to fall in April, May, and June. But as schools have less and less success in finding enough staff, recruitment now begins as early as March and continues through September. “Schools are panicking. Last week, 500 vacancies were posted. These are directors logging in during the holidays to post a vacancy. They fear they will start a new school year without a teacher in the classroom.”

The Rijswijk Lyceum and Vredenburg College are starting the school year with 11 full-time vacancies, rector Maarte Passet told NOS. He’s looking for teachers in history, biology, mathematics, French, economics, and physical education. “Normally, you post a vacancy before the holidays and find someone. But that is becoming increasingly difficult. Until we find new people, we solve it internally. That means that students sometimes get fewer lessons. That can be at the expense of the quality of education. Moreover, the workload is high for teachers.”

According to Passet, his schools can maintain this current make-do situation until the autumn holidays. But the pressure is high because these temporary arrangements come on top of several “hidden vacancies” for which the schools have found “longer lasting,” if less than ideal solutions. Teachers take over lessons for the rest of the year so that students get enough learning time, but it comes at the expense of things like personal guidance.

Teacher recruitment has also become an ongoing process that doesn’t break for summer vacation at the Lingecollege in Tiel. The school held interviews throughout the summer, director Pieter Schaap told NOS. In the past, he’d fall back on temps from the secondment agencies, but they don’t have any people either, he said.

The Lingecollege is starting the year unable to fill several dozen teaching hours, Schaap said. They're currently trying to fill the gaps with teaching assistants or independent study hours. “It seems logical to divide lessons among other teachers. And we try to do that. But we are careful about this because of the consequences for the already high workload.”