Dear Parents

As you know, the staffing situation in the European Schools, including ours, is becoming increasingly more and more difficult. The refusal by the UK to second teachers is the best known but by far not the only example. As a result, the European schools are having to increasingly rely on locally recruited teachers and this situation is not going to change in the foreseeable future – on the contrary, it is becoming the daily reality in the schools

The governing bodies of the European Schools recognise the ensuing need to better regulate the contractual situation of the locally recruited teachers. Hence a draft regulation has been prepared by Office of the Secretary  General of the European Schools that tries to address many aspects of the employment contracts offered to the locally recruited teachers. It is a welcome development but, as is sadly often the case with such initiatives in our system, there is a feeling amongst the teachers concerned that they haven’t been given sufficient time and opportunity to present their opinion. Besides the disproportionate personal liability and the lack of representation in Brussels, lack of reflection of the local market conditions in the remuneration packages offered, there are two other issues the teachers find especially upsetting:

• First, with permanent contracts only being offered after 4 years of service, working for the European Schools is not made very attractive for qualified and dedicated personnel. Furthermore, a recently added paragraph would allow to cancel such contracts as soon as a seconded teacher is available so no security of employment would be offered any more.
• Secondly, locally recruited teachers are still not granted access to the in-service training of the European Schools. They are instead generously permitted to undertake trainings during the their holidays. We as parents believe that is it especially important that when the reform of Secondary studies is implemented, all teachers should be well prepared to carry it through.

This draft regulation has already been discussed by the Joint Teaching Committee and the Budgetary Committee with reservations expressed by various stakeholders (teachers, parents, school directors), it is now on the agenda for approval by the supreme governing body (the Board of Governors), at its next meeting on 12 April next week, for implementation in September 2016

A group of the teachers from our school have launched an online petition requesting that the decision be postponed until all issues have been clarified. The Parents’ Association of the ESF would like to support the teachers and has agreed to share it with the parent community. In our school over half of the teachers are locally recruited so it is in our best interest that they have decent working conditions, especially that the teacher market in Frankfurt, with its many international schools, is very competitive

As the impacts the futures of our children at the ESF we request you to support to join this initiative, by signing the petition (preferably by 11 April)  which can be found on-line via this link.

ESF PA Board