House of Representatives wants to put civil servants laid off by cuts in front of classes

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) must make substantial cuts, so many civil servants will have to look for another job. The VVD has an idea: let them become teachers. According to NOS, the proposal has the support of a majority in the House of Representatives.

The government wants to save a total of 3.4 billion euros on the civil service. Around 25 thousand jobs will be cut. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science must also make substantial savings, cutting almost 30 per cent of its staff.

The VVD sees this as an opportunity to tackle the teacher shortage, NOS reports. What if civil servants whose jobs are cut moved into education? OCW civil servants have ‘an enormous passion’ for education, VVD MP Arend Kisteman believes. That would be ‘two birds with one stone’.

He wants civil servants to be able to retrain for a job in education at the government’s expense. The VVD is urging the government to draw up a plan for this. The proposal already has the support of a majority in the House of Representatives: the coalition parties, JA21 and 50Plus are in favour.

No success

The idea of moving civil servants into education was also explored in 2008. The government at the time wanted to help fifty civil servants make the switch. It was not a success. More than 200 civil servants took part, but only five became teachers.

Schools were reluctant to hire career changers at the time. A teacher’s salary also turned out to be unattractive to many civil servants. The high workload was another factor.