Seven in 10 Flemish schools have teacher shortage

An estimated seven in 10 Flemish schools are facing staff shortages, according to a survey of 529 school officials by GO!, the education umbrella organisation.

The shortage of Dutch and maths teachers in particular is worsening, and head teachers are also becoming increasingly scarce.

A total of 718 positions in Flemish education are vacant, including 595 teaching positions – twice as many as at the start of the school year in September.

GO! has fewer open teaching periods than last year due to additional efforts by teaching staff to fill the gaps as much as possible, but these measures are increasing pressure on staff and affecting the quality of teaching, the organisation has warned.

According to data from the Flemish Agency for Education Services (Agodi), absenteeism due to illness is on the rise. A survey by the Flemish Socio-Economic Council (Serv) also found that people working in education were more stressed than average.

At the same time, the Flemish government recently finalised its new approach to digitisation in primary and secondary education.

“We’re moving away from one laptop for every child in primary education and encouraging schools to provide collective ICT infrastructure, such as lending services,” said Flemish education minister Zuhal Demir.

Among other changes, teachers will now receive a laptop as part of Demir’s new "Digiplan". Approximately €120 million of the €325 million budget will be allocated for this.

During the pandemic, when virtual schooling became the temporary norm, then-education minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) allocated a one-off sum of €400 million to provide every child from the fifth year of primary school onwards with a free laptop. That budget has now been used up.

Demir is planning an investment of €325 million over five years, but said she wanted to "get back to basics". This means not only returning to "pen and paper" for note-taking, but also reversing the free laptop policy for every pupil.

In primary education, the focus will be on "shared ICT infrastructure", such as computer classrooms, lending services or laptop trolleys where pupils can borrow a laptop when they need one.

Schools in the first stage of secondary education will also work in this way. From the third year onwards, secondary schools will be free to choose how they go about laptop distribution, with individual purchases in STEM subjects, for example.

The Flemish government will also set up around 30 "inspiration schools" to serve as an example for other schools. Whether Brussels schools will be included will be decided in the course of 2026.