Anderlecht school scraps Wednesday lessons to attract teachers

A Dutch-speaking primary school in Anderlecht has announced plans to cancel Wednesday classes from the next academic year in order to attract more teachers amid a shortage of staff in education.

The school day at GBS Dertien school will be extended by 15 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and workshops will be offered on Wednesday mornings to compensate for the instructional hours, RTL reports.

“We can see that we will have several job vacancies for the school year and as there is already a shortage of 500 teachers in Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels, we know that we have to be very attractive in order to attract qualified teachers,” said Bieke Comer, alderwoman for education in Anderlecht.

“This is essential to guarantee the quality of education. With this four-day week, we are more attractive and can better attract teachers.”

Comer emphasised that the number of teaching hours will remain the same: “We start earlier and finish later… We’re also taking a shorter lunch break. This means that the number of hours is guaranteed.”

The decision was communicated to parents this week via an official letter from the school and the municipality, but parents say they are confused by the reorganisation and concerned about childcare.

“On Wednesday mornings, there will be childcare with workshops,” said Comer, adding: “We’re looking for partners to organise activities with the children. These activities will also be educational, enabling pupils to continue learning Dutch.”

Comer said questions and comments would be answered during an information session, but many parents are already distraught over the planned change.

“For children who have special needs, it's still a bit of a worry,” one parent told RTL. “Plus I work, so I'll have to reorganise.”

Other parents said they were confused by how the change was communicated, having heard gossip and rumours from other parents about the plan before finally seeing an official letter from the school.