The teacher shortage in Brussels is and remains an acute threat to our children's future. Recent figures have once again shown that Dutch-language education is a sad frontrunner in terms of unfilled vacancies. At the suggestion of Flemish Member of Parliament Hannelore Goeman (Vooruit), the Flemish Parliament has therefore recently approved an important emergency measure. From today, Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels can convert all unfilled teaching hours into points. This will allow them to immediately recruit extra staff for non-pedagogical tasks and relieve the burden on teachers. “We must do everything we can to keep the teachers we have and give them extra support,” says Goeman.
The consequences of the teacher shortage in Brussels are far-reaching. Hundreds of children sometimes go months without a Dutch or maths teacher and spend hours in study halls. Some schools have switched to a four-day school week. In the most dramatic cases, schools close an entire class, as was recently the case for Balder primary school in Sint-Gillis. Parents and children then have to suddenly look for another school in the middle of the school year. And finding a place in Dutch-language education in Brussels is already often extremely difficult.
“I'm genuinely losing sleep over how the opportunities for our Brussels children are being gambled with,” says Flemish MP Hannelore Goeman (Vooruit). “Brussels is the youngest region. Our youth are our strength, but today we are squandering their talent. If we want our young people to make something of their lives, they need teachers. And there aren't enough of them today. That is an absolute disaster for our city.”
Goeman points out how the teacher shortage in Brussels is considerably more acute than in the rest of Flanders: twice as big as in Antwerp or Ghent. Unlike in Flanders, the threat of school closures is unfortunately very real here. She has therefore long advocated for emergency measures, specifically for Brussels. These should primarily keep schools afloat for now, by retaining the teachers who are present.
“During my school visits, I often hear how schools where a few teachers leave quickly spiral into a negative cycle: the remaining teachers have to take on a lot of extra work and quit. Especially now that there are also vacancies closer to home for many Brussels-based teachers who live in Flanders. This means Brussels schools sometimes quickly find themselves on the brink of disaster.”
“We must therefore, first and foremost, do everything we can to keep the teachers we have here, by looking after them well and providing them with extra support. That is precisely the intention of an amendment that I, along with colleagues Daniëls (N-VA) and Vandromme (CD&V), had approved just before the recess.”
Unfilled teacher hours conversion
In practical terms, all Dutch-speaking schools in the Brussels Region will now be able to convert 100% of unfilled teaching hours into so-called ‘points’. Schools can use these points to recruit additional support staff, who can assist with non-teaching tasks such as classroom management, pastoral care, administration, supervision, and so on.
“There is a need for extra hands in the classroom. Also as a signal that we absolutely want to avoid our teachers standing alone – literally.
That system for converting unused hours also exists in Flanders, but is limited to 20% of those unused hours. Given the urgent situation in Brussels, that limit is now being raised to 100% there. Furthermore, in Flanders this conversion is only possible from 1 October. In Brussels, it is now possible from 1 September, i.e. today.
“Normally, headteachers must first try for a month to fill open vacancies before they are allowed to convert, but in Brussels, that is a hopeless situation today. Many Brussels schools are starting the school year with an incomplete team anyway, with no prospect of improvement. Then there is no point in letting the school struggle for a month. Now we are giving headteachers the opportunity to assemble a team as quickly as possible.”
Goeman realises that this is an emergency measure. “In the long run, we will naturally need extra teachers. We therefore have high expectations of Minister Demir's structural plans. The job needs to be made more attractive and more feasible. Teacher training programmes must also be strengthened, including in Brussels. The major challenge here is to get more people from Brussels into teaching. This starts with getting young people enthusiastic about the job, with scouting and coaching programmes. But also investing in opportunities to learn and practise Dutch – as the Flemish government is now doing – so that our young people in Brussels are strong enough at the end of secondary school to train the next generation,” says Goeman.
She concludes on a positive note: “A while ago, hundreds of Brussels-based, Dutch-speaking schools took action with the message ‘Don’t forget Brussels’. This measure proves that we, as members of parliament, have by no means forgotten our capital. That is also my job as a Flemish MP from Brussels. Working on concrete short-term emergency solutions and continuing to focus on more structural long-term solutions that will help our city move forward. Always from the same conviction: that Flanders and Brussels not only need each other, but can also strengthen each other.”