Minister van Bijsterveldt of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) will structurally make available for the coming years 1.3 million dollars to improve the salaries of teachers in the Caribbean Netherlands.
This is one of the elements out of a plan which Minister van Bijsterveldt presented in a video conference on Wednesday with Silvana Serfilia (Commissioner of Education Bonaire) and Chris Johnson (Commissioner of Education Saba) to follow-up on the shortage of teachers on the islands. The Minister emphasized that the importance of good education for the children is a priority for her. "The teachers are fulfilling a very important role therein. For this there must be a reasonable compensation".
Last spring Van Bijsterveldt paid a working visit to Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. The Minister visited a number of schools for primary, secondary and vocational education and talked there with school boards about the quality improvements of education on the islands. Schools on the three islands are struggling with a shortage of teachers.
Out of this research is now proven that salary levels of teachers per island differ greatly at times, starting salaries of teachers are lower than comparable civil servants within Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland and that it takes long for the teachers to reach their maximum salary. With the 1.3 million dollars starting salaries will be improved and teachers can reach their maximum salary sooner.
Conditions stipulated by Van Bijsterveldt for salary increase is that an annual standard on teachers working hours (normjaartaak) of 1659 hours is implemented. Within this annual 10% of the working hours are made available for educating and training of teachers. The Minister has requested the concerned Executive Council’s to start the negotiations with school boards and labour unions. She stressed the urgency of the matter with the Commissioners because she would like to see the salary increase take effect already per January 1st.
Efforts by schools to recruit teachers in the Netherlands have been until now insufficiently successful because the labour conditions between the European Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands are not linked. This way, teachers from the European Netherlands who migrate temporarily to the Caribbean part to work experience a gap in their pension. Van Bijsterveldt has indicated to also take measures regarding this point. This way it will become more practical and attractive for teachers from the European Netherlands to work in the Caribbean Netherlands.