The Flemish Minister of Education says “together with the school involved and the management of the GO school group!” to be looking for a solution for the students who are without a class. Ben Weyts is responding to the closure of three classes in the Hendrik Conscience primary school in Schaarbeek as a result of the teacher shortage.
From March 11, 29 students from the third, fourth and fifth grades will drop out due to the transfer of two teachers to schools in Flanders. The 29 students were sent a list of Brussels Dutch-speaking schools where there is still room. In the meantime, about ten of them decided to look for other places, seventeen students have not yet found a new place.
Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA) says he is “in constant contact” with the Schaerbeek primary school. “Together we are looking for solutions to fill the two vacancies,” said the minister. He points out that “every employer will get into trouble if two employees leave with only two weeks’ notice.”
Vulnerable situation
Weyts looks at the “societal problems in Brussels” as part of the explanation for the departure of the teaching duo. The minister refers to the Brussels security problem. “It is a unique situation that 85 percent of Brussels’ Dutch-speaking educational staff do not live in the Brussels region,” says Weyts. “That is also a very vulnerable situation, as they can all succumb to a job closer to home, which saves them the commute to Brussels.”
According to Weyts, the “society problems” in Brussels are “not an all-explanatory cause” for the departure of the two teachers from Schaerbeek to Flanders. “It is an element that we must dare to name.”
Pending a solution, parents and teachers plan to conduct weekly actions at the Schaerbeek primary school, with a first action planned for Friday morning.
