March 16, 2019
Lack of Funding in Education Leads to a Nationwide Strike
By AISHWARYA KOTTAPURATH
On Friday, March 15, students, teachers, and professors around the Netherlands went on a nationwide strike and protested in The Hague to demand the reversal of budget cuts for, and more investment in, education. The strike asks that the government invest €4 billion into the education sector in order to reduce teachers’ workload as well as improve their wages. According to Dutch Review, this was “the first time in the Netherlands that the entire education sector [ground] to a stop.”
Dorien Konig, the director of general education union AOb, explained to the NL Times that the problem is due to the insufficient investment in education: low wages make it increasingly difficult to find new teachers, which in turn increases the workload of existing teachers. Joris Boon, a secondary school teacher who was at the Hague with a sign that said “Les(s) = More”, stated that a better work environment will help him plan his lessons better. He said, “Now, I have one hour per 2 months to prepare lessons for my students. All my other hours are going to other work, the workload is just too much.”
