Class sizes in primary and secondary schools should have a legal limit of 21 pupils, political parties D66 and SP have said as schools in the south of the country open their doors for the new school year.

Classes with more than 30 children should be banned immediately and the limit brought down in stages to improve quality and relieve pressure on teachers, Sandra Beckman, an MP for the Socialist Party told the AD.

“The first reaction often is, this is impossible because we have a shortage of teachers,” she said. “We are turning the discussion on its head: there is no shortage of teachers but a shortage of teachers who want to head a class.”

There are plenty of available teachers, MP Ilana Rooderkerk of the progressive liberal D66 said. “There are 200,000 qualified teachers, enough for 10 children per class. The problem is with the high work pressure,” she said. One in five new teachers stop within the first five years.

Smaller class sizes would help motivate teachers to stay and others to enter the profession, the MPs said.

After an initial fall in 30-plus classes to 2% in 2019, the number rose to 5.4% in the school year 2020/2021, according to figures cited by the paper.

Basic skills declining

Class sizes should be capped at 29 immediately and, in time, be reduced to a maximum of 21, the parties said. “Research has shown that this is the number for optimal school results,” Rooderkerk said.

The plan would cost some €1.5 billion, but would create an extra €3.5 billion in GNP in 10 years,” she claimed. An earlier proposal by D66 to limit class sizes to 23 for primary schools failed to raise a majority, but there is a better chance this time around, Rooderkerk said.

“Dutch children are not doing well in the three Rs compared to their peers in other European countries. One in three leaves school without being able to write, read, or do sums properly,” she said.

According to teachers’ union Aob, class size is just one of the conditions to attract more teachers. Fixed contracts, higher salaries and fewer cutbacks on education would help as wel, union official Kim van Strien told current affairs programme Spraakmakers.

An added problem for the execution of the plan is the increase in primary school children as a result of a “Corona boom”.  In 2021, 179,000 children were born, some 10,000 more than in an ordinary year, according to figures from statistics agency CBS quoted by the AD. These children are now four and start to enter primary schools this month, swelling class sizes by an average of two pupils.