DWARS in Debate: the need for the education strike

DWARS in Debate is a new series of opinion pieces written by DWARSers on thought-provoking topics. A new opinion piece is published every other Saturday. This piece on yesterday's general education strike was written by our general board member Arianne Sikken. Enjoy reading it!

A friend of mine, working in primary education, wondered aloud the other day whether the strike on 15 March was really necessary. After all, the salary for a beginning teacher is relatively high, you make short days and you have quite a few weeks' holiday a year. Now, I myself am a beginning teacher in secondary education. I do fully support the strike. I can understand my friend somewhere: my salary as a starter is good, I am often off before three o'clock and had a holiday three weeks ago. Still, it is incredibly necessary for teachers to unite and go on strike. Education should be accessible to all, it cannot be that children are sent home after four days of classes because of a teacher shortage. I also see temporary vacancies due to sick leave popping up like mushrooms. Something has to be done. The workload has to come down.

There should be more time for individual students. The classes I teach are often overcrowded: more than thirty pupils is more often the rule than the exception. It is impossible to give equal attention to every pupil when you are in front of a group of thirty pupils. Thirty teenagers whose hormones are racing through their bodies. And for most adolescents, the more noise I make, the more attention I get. When thirty students have this attitude, this leads to, say, a production of a hundred decibels. Imagine one hundred decibels, six hours a day, five days a week. Not to mention all the tasks that come on your plate besides teaching. It is no wonder that so many teachers become jaded. 

Now, there have already been attempts to pump more money into education. The teacher shortage has been ‘addressed’. I myself am an example of it. In 2010, the House of Representatives decided to revive the educational minor. This minor gives the you the opportunity to get a (limited) second-degree teaching qualification in five months. This way, students can quickly be retrained as teachers and the teacher shortage would be filled. I myself am extremely glad I did this minor. But to be perfectly honest: 30 ECTS and five months is far too short to feel competent as a teacher. You teach about six hours a week during this minor. You will be prepared to stand in front of the classroom at lightning speed. Once you can manage somewhat in front of the class, you will have passed and be able to work full-time in teaching. These five months do not compare to the four-year course at HBO where you do at least three internships.  With me, more organisations are concerned about this. The then secretary of OCW, van Bijsterveldt-Vliegenthart, advocated this minor at the time. His response to the concerns raised was to encourage students to also choose the master's as a first-grade teacher. In my own environment, this happens very little: of the ten students in my class, one plans to pursue the master's degree. The other nine want to go straight into the classroom or not into teaching anyway. The educational minor is not the answer to the rising teacher shortage. 

But what does work? The answer: more investment in education. More money should go to education. More money will go to education. Because it cannot continue like this. First and foremost, and most importantly, for the sake of the child. Classes must be smaller, there must be more care for pupils with learning or behavioural problems and for teachers. Children are the future and they deserve attention and above all: good education. So for everyone wondering whether this strike is really necessary, the answer is yes.

Do you have an idea for an opinion piece? Send an email to secretary Wester Coenraads: secretaris.groningen@dwars.org.