“If you look at the attrition rate of starting teachers worldwide, the Netherlands is not doing so badly with an above-average ranking. But the mean attrition rate of 15 percent, roughly one in seven, is still too high. Some countries have a much lower attrition rate, around six percent. But there are also negative outliers of up to 40 percent attrition, which is reported in some parts of the USA.”
“The cause of attrition is always a combination of personal factors and environment, such as the location of the school, the type of school and the role of the starting teacher at that school. For example, in their first job, teachers may conclude that they are not sufficiently equipped to develop a bond with their class independently. They also have to learn to analyse what is going well and what can be improved. Another frequently heard problem is the workload. Beginning teachers have not yet acquired the routines of preparing lessons, attending school meetings and interacting with parents. Everything is relatively new and they still have to find their way.”
Personal coaches
“The attrition rate in the Netherlands is largely related to the Dutch education system, which determines class sizes, salaries and professional space. These are all aspects for which the government is responsible; individual schools or teacher training programmes can also exert influence on them.
“But schools and teacher training programmes do influence the attrition rate, for example by providing better guidance for starting teachers. Many good programmes have been created for this purpose. These differ per region, which actually makes them more effective because it allows you to take regional differences into account; attrition in urban schools often has different causes than in rural schools. My advice is therefore to focus primarily on regional cooperation between schools and teacher training programmes, for example by appointing personal coaches at the school who are guided by the training programmes. This helps starters to get used to the daily routines with less work pressure. This collaboration is steadily improving, with better programmes, so the attrition rate is expected to decrease in the near future.”
Reading tip: Die ene leerling (That one student) by Volkskrant journalist Rik Kuiper
“In this book, teachers talk about 'that one student’ who changed their view of the world forever. Everyone in the class matters, which teaches me that every student needs to be seen.”
Harmen Schaap trained in pedagogical studies at the University of Groningen. Since 2014 he has worked as a teacher trainer and educational researcher at Radboud University.
Foto: ANP, Mats van Soolingen