Audit office maps the teacher shortfall in Flemish secondary schools, with Brussels and disadvantaged schools worst hit
Counting every absence, one teacher in sixteen is missing; schools cope with stopgap measures that the audit office says threaten quality.
The Court of Audit has measured how large the teacher shortage is in Flemish secondary education, arriving at a gap of 3.6 percent in March 2025, the equivalent of almost 40,000 teaching hours. Bruzz, De Tijd and La Libre report this on the basis of the report, which examined the 2022-2023 and 2024-2025 school years. The structural shortage, where no one is available for a vacant post, is around 2 percent. On top of that come absences for which no suitable replacement can be found. If short absences for which no paid replacement is possible are also counted, the shortage rises to 6.4 percent, or roughly one teacher in sixteen, Bruzz reports. Het Nieuwsblad also highlights that figure.
The shortage is very unevenly spread. Maths, Dutch, French and English are hit hardest. Schools in the Brussels-Capital Region come in at around 6 percent, and schools in city centres, those offering vocational tracks or with many disadvantaged pupils also struggle more. To fill the gaps, head teachers mainly turn to career changers and teachers in training, and far less to guest teachers or flexi-jobbers. The teacher-specialist role, introduced under former minister Ben Weyts, is little used, partly because schools do not want to create inequality within their staff.
According to the Court of Audit, schools tinker with timetables, let pupils start later or go home earlier and give them more study periods. It describes these as emergency measures with negative effects: pupils lose teaching time, training and pupil support are cut back, and pressure on existing staff increases. La Libre notes that the audit office also finds Flemish policy insufficiently coherent and points to a lack of reliable data.
Flemish Education Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) responds that she is in intensive talks with education providers and unions on an education pact with broadly supported solutions, including for the teacher shortage. She rejects a Brussels bonus for teachers: in her view there is no room for it in the current budgetary situation, similar bonuses abroad do not work and it would widen the pay gap with the Flemish periphery around Brussels, Bruzz reports.