Something that never gets mentioned in the teachers shortage debate is that Belgium already has fewer pupils per teacher than neighbouring countries in primary and secondary schools, and that spending on employees in education already is 2.1% of GDP higher compared to those countries

5 comments

  1. Belgium had a GDP of 457 billion EUR in 2020. 2.1% of GDP implies Belgium would be spending 9-10 billion EUR less on wages in education, if the level of spending would be at the same level as in the neighbours, relative to GDP. Makes you wonder if people shouldn’t think more about organizing things differently, instead of just trying to hire more teachers.

    Source: [https://www.nbb.be/nl/artikels/welke-overheidsuitgaven-belgie-zijn-hoog-een-vergelijking-met-de-buurlanden](https://www.nbb.be/nl/artikels/welke-overheidsuitgaven-belgie-zijn-hoog-een-vergelijking-met-de-buurlanden)

  2. Let’s see:

    * Focus on administration and research output versus teaching,
    * Refusal to hire people on permanent contracts causing massive overhead on a yearly basis,
    * Large numbers of political appointees in a variety of educational institutions skimming money left and right,
    * Megalomaniac construction projects shifted to educational budgets,
    * Heavily subsidizing the education for children of self-employed parents who artificially keep their salaries low,
    * Ridiculous digitization projects where laptops are purchased through questionable structures,
    * …
    * Constant rearrangement of the educational system without actually considering any of the previous factors.

    Could continue for quite a while.

    Also, directly comparing salaries between Belgium and neighbouring countries is a lot more difficult than you’re making it out to be. Our marvellous over-complicated tax system throws a spanner in the works there.

  4. Do you know someone who is a teacher? My wife is one so I am biased. Upper secondary. I work as an engineer in a private company. Believe me the amount of shit they have to take is not worth their salary. Between the nomination system, the complete lack of workload management, colleagues who are already sick day 1 and random stuff coming from our omniscient leaders… If my wife was already nominated, I would already have barged into the direction office to teach them one thing or two regarding company and people management. I patiently wait until the time comes …

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