A survey by NOS Stories among more than 1,100 students from all over the country, gives the same picture. Nine out of ten students indicate that lessons are regularly canceled due to the absence of teachers. More than a quarter have many different teachers for a subject, and in one in ten a subject has completely disappeared or can no longer be chosen. According to students, the most problems are with Dutch, mathematics and English.
A large proportion also indicate that they are suffering from the shortages. They get worse grades, get learning delays and find the quality of the lessons insufficient, which means they have to do too much themselves. They are also concerned about their tests and exams.
“I really get lower grades,” says Fienne from 4 havo. “We have not had a teacher for mathematics for six months. We now have to make up for that and that is very difficult. First I got a six, this year I started with a three. I am quite nervous for my final exam next year.”
Charlotte in 5 vwo notices the same. “First my biology teacher suddenly disappeared, then that of Dutch. I didn’t have any lessons there for two months. I just had a test where I had to write a speech, but I never practiced with it. So it didn’t go well.”
Students in front of the class
In Amsterdam, the headmasters of 23 different schools are jointly thinking about solutions. “We don’t want to buy teachers away from each other, so we have made agreements about that. In the future, for example, we could have students work more in large learning plazas, where they can go to the mentor with questions. And that mentor does not necessarily have to be a teacher. but can also come from youth work or youth care,” says Maryse Knook, headmaster of the Open School community Bijlmer.
At the Johannes Fontanus College in Barneveld they even go a step further. There they offer students to pay for their teacher training after school, on the condition that they come and work at the school afterwards. But before those students graduate, it’s years later, so until then the school doesn’t sit still. They are already putting pupils from the upper classes in front of the class, to teach lower classes.
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