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Johan Leman, 5 May 2022

A Brussels college of higher education that, a few years ago, still attracted 120 students for the course that trained someone to become a teacher, today only attracts 20 students. Meanwhile, the number of children in Brussels’ Dutch-speaking schools is increasing. I do not know what the situation is in the French-speaking education system, but in any case… in the Dutch-speaking education system, it is already possible to calculate the shortage of teachers that will occur within 5 to 6 years.

Have the authorities calculated how big this shortage of teachers will be? Is a plan being developed? Has it been calculated how the children will learn some subjects that are crucial for their later careers? Are they working out formulas to compensate for this? Or will one wait … until the time comes?

A few years ago, when refugee children arrived in Sweden, authorities there recruited retired teachers. In addition to their pensions, they paid a surplus for the lessons. Retired teachers offered to teach for a few half-days. I can imagine that this could also be considered here. When I turned 65, I was no longer allowed to teach at KU Leuven. The law prohibited it. I am now 75. Looking back over the last 10 years, I can imagine that I could have perfectly taught some half-day classes in Dutch or French or English (or I don’t know) in some primary or secondary school. And I will not be the only one.  Young people have a right to be taught and they have a right to trained teachers, don’t they? And perhaps this kind of intervention would also have given the profession a little more social status again. There are other formulas possible, of course.

Are our governments thinking about 1. how to give back status to the teaching profession (which is really not a matter of salary in the first place) and 2. how to reach the required number of teachers that will be needed to guarantee the education of our Brussels youth within a few years?

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