“It would be better to have four days of longer, but quality teaching, than to spend a fifth day distributing the students to other classes without a teacher.” At the Institute of the Ursulines primary school in Koekelberg, the teacher shortage is forcing the school to take far-reaching measures. “It really is survival,” says Nancy De Boey, coordinating director of primary education of the Brussels Annuntiaten school group, which includes the Ursuline Institute. “There are only three teachers left to teach on Wednesday.”
The board has been looking for alternative organizational forms for some time. Sometimes these are “wild ideas”. One of them is to organize education by grade. Another to place the best students from each class together in a classroom after an explanation. Ultimately, an application is submitted to switch to a four-day teaching week until the end of the school year.
This once again shows how acute the teacher shortage is in Brussels. Last week it was announced that several classes were closing in two primary schools in Schaerbeek. Several GO! schools have already switched to a four-day school week.
Beautiful ideals
It is inevitable that drastic steps will be taken in Brussels schools. A new analysis by Catholic Education Flanders shows how dire the situation is in many schools. Although there are currently 80 unfilled vacancies at 64 Brussels primary schools, the real impact of the teacher shortage is more than three times greater. This concerns 277 full-time teachers who are missing.
“The figures are distorted by short-term solutions and testing grounds,” says Karen Luyckfasseel, coordinating director of primary education at Sint-Goedele Brussels. Schools are turning to emergency solutions en masse: teachers are working extra hours, retirees are stepping in and a huge group of people without teaching experience are being deployed in the classroom. In recent years, 132 full-time lateral entrants without a pedagogical diploma have started at 64 primary schools; 46 of them are not currently following teacher training.
That gives an extra dimension to the discussion. The teacher shortage remains serious, the shortage of teachers is even greater. “Right now it seems like vacancies are being filled, but they are not being filled by teachers. These were completed by people without a pedagogical diploma. In practice, the teacher shortage has never been so bad,” says Luyckfasseel.
The Brussels schools are grateful to the lateral entrants, but they also bring burdens with them. “Many people come to education based on an ideal. They often give up a company car and a lot of wages to choose meaning. That’s very beautiful. However, a school is not a company. You cannot simply be trained for a few months with us – especially not in these times,” says De Boey.
“People now think that anyone can be in the classroom,” Luyckfasseel adds. “But when we talk about educational quality, you need a certain number of qualified teachers.” The existing group of teachers therefore feels a lot of pressure. “They have to include those people in the story. There are no hours for this, so it happens during the lunch break or after school hours. But we also have the right to a break.”
Fall out
You cannot accuse the Brussels schools of naivety. In addition to emergency measures, they were already taking preventive measures. This school year, 51 full-time jobs were not created in Catholic primary schools due to the teacher shortage. In many schools, classes have been put together since the start of the school year, or certain classes or care tasks have not been created, precisely to reduce the need for staff.
The two tough years are now making themselves felt in the teams. “Teachers are starting to drop out,” Luyckfasseel notes. “There are a lot of sick people at the moment. This ranges from the flu to long-term illness. Some get a burnout, others need a few weeks of rest and energy.” There isn’t much margin. “If you already have a minimum occupancy, and two people are sick, then there is a big problem taking care of children.”
The situation in Brussels primary schools will remain tense in the coming months. “Not much more needs to happen before there is another closure. There are schools in our group where we think: if someone leaves now, we cannot promise that we will not have to close classes,” says Luyckfasseel.
The same problem occurs in Brussels secondary education. Although there are currently only 28 vacancies at ten secondary schools, the real impact is estimated at 114 full-time jobs. Catholic education therefore calls for extra efforts to be made in the metropolitan context. “The lack of sustainable and decisive measures, which have long been requested by education providers, is felt most strongly in Brussels,” says Director General Lieven Boeve. One of the options that Catholic schools believe should be considered is accelerated seniority building.
“The movement from Brussels to Flanders has been going on for years. Although teachers really enjoy working in our Brussels schools, they see an opportunity to work closer to home,” says De Boey. In the past, permanent appointments were a stick behind the door to retain teachers. “Today that doesn’t even stop them. After fifteen calendar days’ notice, they can leave in the middle of the school year.”
