2025 Het lerarentekort: ongekende ambities en stapeldruk in het voortgezet onderwijs

The teacher shortage in the Netherlands is a multidimensional problem, characterised by unfulfilled ambitions and stacking pressure to perform. Disappointments stem from the daily reality in the classroom and the limited career prospects for teachers. Nevertheless, teachers are highly motivated to find solutions to the challenges they face in their work. Research conducted in three surveys involving a total of 2,913 teachers from 72 secondary schools in the Netherlands has yielded three important insights. Firstly, there is limited flexibility outside the classroom: teachers respond well to the needs of their pupils, but outside the classroom they are less flexible. There is little knowledge sharing and teachers do not learn enough from each other. Secondly, generational differences are not being exploited effectively. New teachers should bring energy, but in practice there is an energy leak. In the short term, new teachers have to survive, but in the longer term there is a lack of career prospects. Thirdly, there are challenges in leadership: managers often have higher ambitions and more priorities than teachers, which makes it difficult to implement targeted improvements. The solution lies in operationalising and developing the professional standards of adaptive craftsmanship, based on systematically collected data from the workplace.