Let novice masters work less. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but the Vooruit party did roll out a proposal to reduce the teacher shortage. “We wanted to reduce the workload by reforming the 22 hours of classical teaching assignments into 38 hours of schoolwork, spread out over the normal work week,” said chairman Conner Rousseau.

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According to Vooruit, beginning teachers should teach less, but be given more room for further preparation, consultation and training. Experienced teachers, who require less preparation, can guide the beginners. The reason is that it reduces everyone’s workload and makes the teaching profession more attractive. “It’s also great for students,” said Flemish party leader Hannelore Goeman (Vooruit). “Teachers are thus given the space to tailor their teaching packages to the needs of their students.”

Election

Rousseau and Goeman unveiled the proposal as part of the ‘Great Education Day’ Vooruit is hosting today in Sint-Niklaas. All kinds of proposals are being discussed by teachers, principals, experts, parents and politicians. With a focus on three themes: teacher shortages, language deficits and declining quality of education.

READ ALSO. Flanders has more teachers than any other country, but there is a shortage of teachers: “With one intervention you have 25,000 more”

For Rousseau, education is one of the key themes heading into the 2024 elections. He has stated that his party would be happy to appoint a new education minister if it ends up in the next Flemish government. Especially to break the N-VA policy in recent years. “Flanders is a knowledge economy. We have no oil, no diamonds, no gas on our land. Our raw materials are our hands and heads. And that is what our Flemish government is now playing with. He plays with our youth, with our future, with our welfare state,” said Rousseau. “We have to make teacher’s work interesting again. We need to reduce the workload so that fewer teachers drop out of school and our teaching team becomes bigger. This is how we increase our level of education and strengthen our welfare state.”