Some 20,000 teachers will to go on strike on Thursday in protest at the government’s plans to make them work longer hours and cut their holidays, the biggest Dutch teaching union AOb said.

Teachers from at least 700 secondary schools will go on strike, and around 180 schools will be closed for the day.
The strike is in protest at the cabinet’s plans to increase the number of teaching hours in pre-college and pre-university education to 1,040 a year, up from the standard 1,000. The change is at the insistence of the populist PVV, despite a government committee recommending no change.
Impossible
The extra hours, teachers say, will be impossible to meet with current funding and staffing levels, meaning pupils will be ‘locked up’ for hours without supervision or lessons.
Teachers are also angry that their official summer holiday will be cut from seven to six weeks. They argue much of the long break is taken up with preparation and meetings, and that they need time off to recover from the pressures of the job.
Education minister Marja Bijsterveldt says reducing the summer holiday will allow teachers to better spread work currently done as overtime and avoid pressure peaks.
Special education
In addition, teachers are opposed to the cabinet’s special education reforms which they fear will mean more special needs children in ordinary schools without proper funding. They are also unhappy at the fact their pay has been frozen and that the cabinet is pressing ahead with introducing performance-related pay.
When Bijsterveldt was appointed minister, some 45% of teachers said they would give her the benefit of the doubt, Trouw points out. That percentage has now halved, and just 3% of teachers think the government’s measures are improving education.