Teacher shortage: 2 in 3 pupils miss at least 1 hour of teaching every week
More than two in three schoolchildren in Flanders miss out on at least one lesson hour every week due to teacher shortages. The findings come from a survey of more than 34,000 children by Vlaamse Scholierenkoepel, the Flemish pupils' council.
Of the pupils surveyed, 45 per cent say they spend one to two lesson hours every week doing private study. Another 18 per cent miss three to five hours a week.
43 per cent of pupils don’t feel motivated at school and almost half suffer from stress related to school. That theme was a factor in January's school strike, in which pupils expressed their unhappiness with reforms by Education minister Zuhal Demir.
They were also angry at a ban on smartphones in schools and, in particular, the scrapping of certain days off, such as study days and the period between exams and holidays.
Following talks with the council, Demir agreed to discuss her policies with pupils more often. Regular meetings will be held with her cabinet so pupils can share their concerns before decisions are made.
Racism and bullying
The survey also found that a third of secondary school pupils had been bullied by another pupil. This most often involves name-calling or gossiping in school, while for 39 per cent of victims the bullying takes place partly or entirely online.
Racism also remains a persistent problem, with a quarter of young people having experienced it. Among non-Belgian pupils, the figure rises to half. The perpetrators are mostly fellow pupils, but in 25 per cent of cases the racism comes from one or more teachers.
Finally, the increasing cost of education worries young people. More than one in five pupils don’t consider their own course of study to be affordable and 5 per cent have already changed course because of the cost.
Asked what they would tackle first as Education minister, 38 per cent of children put the attractiveness of the teaching profession in their top five. This makes it the second most important issue after mental wellbeing. In 2023, only 17 per cent considered the teacher shortage a major problem.
#FlandersNewsService | An empty classroom in Antwerp during a teachers' strike in January 2026 against planned pension reforms © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM
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