Dutch Teachers Strike
Holland’s largest teachers union is on strike today against a bill that will increase teachers’ working hours and cut their holidays. They are also protesting against cuts to special needs education, a salary freeze and the introduction of performance-related-pay.
The biggest Dutch teachers union, AOb, have said that 20,000 teachers are taking part in the strike, which will affect over 600 schools. There will also be a mass rally in Utrecht to protest the changes.
The teachers say that, without increased funding for more staff, the extra hours will mean students will be sat in classrooms without supervision. But despite protests of several thousand students in Amsterdam at the end of last year and a three day strike earlier this year by a smaller union, the bill has been passed through the lower house of parliament. The protests today aim to stop the bill from being passed by the Senate.
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January 26 2012 11:52 am | General
Brenda on 05 Mar 2012 at 7:35 pm #
Welcome to my reality. I’m from British Columbia, Canada and teachers are striking for many of the same reasons. Seems this attack on teachers and public education is world wide.
Richard on 12 Mar 2012 at 2:04 pm #
Teaching is hard work, long hours and in some cases a withdrawal from society.
The performance pay idea does not work, plus we are not manufacturing and have no control on the raw materials or simply the students we are presented with.
Australia suffers from out of date ideas in education and radical thinking is certainly not present.
Why does the admin not think about quality of teaching, rather than testing to the test and meeting targets.
Leave us alone.