More than four in five teachers and administrators struggle with a lot of planning burden in their job. This is evident from the first planning report, which De Tijd reported on Wednesday. The main cause is the individual approach for students who need extra care or who need to be challenged more.
Source: BELGA
Yesterday at 6:03 am
To gain insight into the planning burden, the Education Inspectorate set up an action plan at the request of the Flemish government, including a large-scale investigation. From May 2022 to June 2023, the service asked about 8,500 people in education about what exactly this planning burden is and where it appears.
Although planning burden is a subjective experience of how meaningful or effective a particular task or responsibility is, it has real consequences such as stress, confusion, frustration and emotional exhaustion, the inspectorate notes. This threatens the quality of education, which has been declining for twenty years.
The report shows that 83 percent of education professionals experience “a lot” to “a lot” of planning burden. The problem is everywhere. The position, level of education and number of years of experience make little difference.
Individual approach and accountability
Planning burden appears to be more than the typical “paper administration”. The individual approach of students scores highest as a cause of planning burden.
When asked who is responsible for all that planning burden, 80 percent point the finger at the Education Inspectorate. 78 percent also experience accountability to umbrella organizations and organizing bodies as a planning burden. The external demand from parents for accountability is a cause of planning burden for 56 percent.
The Education Inspectorate calls on schools to “cut back on the planning burden”, but also takes control. Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA) emphasizes that Flanders has already simplified its regulations. “Since this school year, the ‘presumption of expertise’ applies to teachers, which means that the class council no longer has to extensively prove that a particular evaluation decision is justified,” says Weyts.