Educational quality.

Focus point - Education quality.

The quality of education is under pressure. Parents worry a lot about the teacher shortage, canceled lessons, declining quality of reading and math lessons, too full classes, and rising work and performance pressure.

Strikes

The large strikes in recent years show there is much unhappiness in education, not only about salary. Work pressure, scale increase, and unhappiness with how education is organized also play an important role. Parents see the problems and mostly support the demands of teaching staff.

Right to education

Children in the Netherlands must go to school. The government must make sure they get good education in a safe place. This needs qualified teachers. Now the government cannot always do this. We cannot accept this. Children have the right to good education that fits their development. All children also need structure, predictability, and small groups. Too large classes, canceled lessons, and changing teachers put high pressure on children and harm their learning.

Teacher shortage

In big cities, primary schools now have huge teacher shortages. In the coming years, shortages will grow across the country. The four-day lesson week, classes with more than 35 children, or subjects in secondary schools where students sometimes have no lessons for months are real problems. The measures taken so far do not fix the problem.

Invest in education

Education needs lasting improvements. Teachers must get fair pay. Work pressure must be lower. Classes should be smaller. More help in class and school is needed. Teacher training must improve. Teachers need more time for training, for example in tailored education.

Our views:

• Aim strongly to stop the teacher shortage by investing much more in job conditions. Limit teachers leaving and increase new teachers. Do not give up that all children deserve regular lessons from a qualified teacher.
• Make a clear difference between temporary emergency measures and lasting solutions. Make sure unwanted emergency measures do not become the norm.
• Create a leave scheme for parents who must teach their children because of regular canceled lessons.
• Make sure there are always more helpers in class and school. This lowers work pressure for teachers, gives children more attention, and more time for lesson planning and training.
• Set a maximum class size rule. Schools can only go above this temporarily and with good reason.