Since 1990, teachers’ spending power has gone up some nine percentage points less than that of the average worker, teaching union AOb said on Tuesday. .

The union said the freeze on public sector pay and cuts in health insurance payouts were behind the gap. ‘At the same time the government is scratching its head wondering why so few people become teachers,’ said AOb chairman Walter Dresscher. ‘I know the answer. They can do their sums.’
Last year the government’s social policy bureau SCP and the education council noted that teachers’ pay rates were lagging behind market developments.
Education minister Ronald Plaserk is due to address the teaching union’s annual conference later on Tuesday