As the new schoolyear looms, so too do the worries regarding Flanders' chronic teacher shortage. The region has already announced several measures to combat this issue, the latest being a more flexible approach.
Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts is proposing to use the so-called "flexi-job" scheme — which allows people who already have a job or are retired to work unlimited hours on the side without being taxed — to tackle the shortage in the sector as ten days ago, there were still 2,400 vacancies in the education sector.
"It is not a miracle cure, but it is an extra instrument for our schools to recruit people," he told Het Laatste Nieuws.
Return of the retired
During the peak of the pandemic, the government introduced a measure allowing retired teachers to return to the front of classrooms as an exception due to the skyrocketing number of infections among staff members.
The extenstion of this agreement was also on the table in Brussels to combat its issue of staff shortages. Weyts wanted to extend this measure, but it was rejected by the Federal Government, so it expired on 30 June this year.
Now, he is looking at other ways to implement a similar measure by allowing for side gigs in education, so that not only pensioners but also other working people can take up a role in the sector. This measure could solve the shortage of teachers, he said.
"When it comes to people who have been working elsewhere for four-fifths of the time, it can even be done without levying NSSO or tax on those few hours that they work in the education sector."
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He envisages a wide variety of tasks for these people, from teaching more technical subjects to helping pupils who are behind in their studies, but they could also accompany buses in special schools or help with childcare in nursery schools.
In the meantime, the Teachers' Bonus has already been approved, allowing people with a master's or bachelor's degree to immediately teach in front of the class, and earn money in doing so, even without a pedagogical qualification.
