Thousands of vacancies for the coming school year not yet filled

For most children and teachers in the Netherlands, the school year is over. The new school year starts in a month and a half, but many schools have not yet completed their enrollments. More than one in three secondary schools and almost one in 10 elementary schools still have vacancies for the coming school year, according to data analyzed by ANP from the Meesterbaan job board.

More than 3,200 vacancies in the education sector can be found on the job website. Over 400 have been added in the last three days. Most of the vacancies are for teachers in primary and secondary education.

The number of vacancies in primary and secondary education is almost twice as high as in 2019. However, the number of vacancies this year has fallen slightly compared to last year, says Danny Smulders of Meesterbaan. "The main reason for this is that the grants from the National Education Program (NPO), which schools receive to remedy coronavirus-related disadvantages, are coming to an end. With this in mind, the number of vacancies remains very high."

According to the PO Council, the problem has existed for years. "There is a shortage of 10,000 teachers. As shocking as that is, it doesn't even shock us anymore." According to the spokesperson, many schools outside the big cities are just about managing to compensate for education. "In quotation marks. That means they have a teacher for each group, but then nothing has to happen. One sick person means a class is split up or sent home."

According to the umbrella organization, the teacher shortage is very persistent, especially in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of the big cities. "There are sometimes shortages of 25 percent. For every four classes, there is one teacher short."

People who transfer from other sectors to education, the lateral entrants, help to reduce the shortage. "Fortunately, that is successful. Many school leaders in the Randstad do not know what they would do without lateral entrants", according to the PO Council. Schools could also ask teachers approaching retirement to continue working longer and postpone their retirement. "But schools have to do that with hat in hand. You ask these people for a favor, they have to get something in return. And someone has to want it."

In some municipalities, people can get other incentives if they become teachers. For example, they can park for free or get priority for a rental home. But the PO Council fears that such "stopgap measures" are ultimately not enough to quickly make up for the shortages.