Working in education offers the possibility of having a lot of vacation time, and this still often arouses jealousy. “But this attractive advantage is too often used to silence teachers,” writes Flemish journalist Annpeuteman. “It’s high time to stop this.”
“Who will take care of my children on Monday? Should I maybe take time off from work? It’s a real shame.” Voilà among the most polite reactions which circulated on social networks and in reader forums in the run-up to the teaching strike scheduled for Monday. If some people already don’t understand why SNCB employees are mobilizing, they seem even less to understand the reasons which push teachers to take to the streets.
«What are they complaining about? They have more vacations than they teach in the classroom. And as soon as they hear that they may have to work another year before retiring, they get on their high horse,” wrote an angry mother on Facebook.
Could teachers work a little longer or be satisfied with a slightly lower pension? It’s a debate worth having.. But let’s imagine that the big boss of Roularta, the parent company of Le Vif, announces that he plans to no longer pay an amount each month into our group insurance, which would mean that our pension would be much less than what we have always been entitled to. promised. Honestly, I don’t know if a new issue of the magazine would come out next week. Maybe all the editors would stop working tooand it is likely that you, dear faithful reader, would understand this reaction.
Why do we have so little empathy for the people we entrust our children to day after day?
Why then do we so little empathy for the people to whom we entrust our children day after day? “Because they have more than three months of vacation per year,” you may think. And in a sense, that’s true. But we cannot continue to use this argument every time the teaching staff sounds the alarm. Are more and more teachers facing burnout? “It can’t be because of their work, they have plenty of vacation time.” Do the principals find it absurd that their students still have to come to school on Monday June 30? “A nameless sloth! Then they have two full months of vacation.” Teachers denounce lack of staff which forces them to work much more to make up for absences? “Yes, but afterward, they always have plenty of time to rest.”
Many teachers find this argument quite insulting and end up being discouraged. “When strangers call us lazy on social networks because we have a lot of vacation, I can still laugh about it,” explains a history teacher who has long hesitated to participate in the strike. “But when friends joke over dinner that I’m at home more than at school, it hurts. Perhaps what’s even worse is when parents make these kinds of remarks. Just before Christmas, I heard a father say to another parent outside the school: “ These teachers still have a life of luxury. Six weeks of work and more vacation. » While this same man sometimes calls me three times a week in the evening because he is worried about his little daughter and that I often sacrifice my Wednesday afternoon to give him private lessons.”
“Teachers have a lot of vacation”: really?
Does this mean that nothing in the status of teachers can change? Of course not. It can certainly be updated, and no taboo subject should be avoided. Are the nominations still relevant to our times? Could the introduction of a 38-hour week not be considered? Should the teaching staff pension plan be reformed? These are all questions that should be able to be discussed openly. But this only makes sense if these three months of vacation are not constantly used as an argument.
Yes, teachers get a lot of vacation time compared to most other workers. This is how the school year is structured. Many of them also badly need these free weeks, because their work is often extremely demanding. And in 2025, no one seriously believes that a teacher only works when he or she is in class. Years ago, studies showed that primary school teachers work on average more than 49 hours per weekand their secondary school colleagues almost 48 hours. These long work weeks are actually offset by all these vacations. And this is – fortunately – yet another reason why many young people and other career movers consider teaching to be an attractive place to work.
So it’s high time to let go of our jealousy and to objectively examine what is really wrong with the teaching profession.
