“The first graduates of the Master’s in Primary Education have received their degrees, but a suitable professional status and corresponding remuneration are still lacking”

This summer, the first graduates of the Master’s in Primary Education received their degrees. Yet they still have no appropriate career prospects within primary schools: there is currently no master’s pay scale for teachers in pre-primary and primary education. Flanders has therefore established a master’s programme, but the professional status needed to recognise these graduates’ expertise is still missing. Without the prospect of appropriate remuneration, these graduates risk leaving primary education altogether. Such a brain drain is something our primary education system can ill afford.

The original opinion piece appeared in Knack (In Dutch)

For years, primary education was largely absent from policy debates. Today, however, much is expected of schools. Graduates of the new Master’s in Primary Education programmes can help schools implement reforms such as the new minimum attainment targets, language support classes, behavioural support experts, inclusive education initiatives, knowledge-rich curricula and evidence-informed teaching methods. The master’s programme is an advanced qualification that deepens teachers’ expertise both at classroom level, through insights into effective teaching practices, and at school level, through expertise in innovation processes and school development.

As a result, graduates can take on responsibilities that extend beyond their teaching duties. They can coach newly qualified teachers and unqualified career changers, carefully analyse and interpret complex data such as the results of the KOALA and Flemish standardised assessments, translate scientific evidence on effective teaching into classroom practice, incorporate the new minimum attainment targets into coherent learning pathways, and help develop sound policies on generative AI. Working alongside colleagues, they can develop evidence-based responses to the challenges facing their schools.

In theory, primary schools can already appoint teachers with a master’s degree. In practice, however, many schools lack sufficient staffing resources to do so, and master’s graduates are often appointed under a different and less favourable employment status rather than in standard teaching positions. Despite what some critics may claim, the Master’s in Primary Education is not a passing fad. The programme is the result of a policy choice that was prepared and substantiated over many years. As early as 2017, the Flemish Education Council (VLOR) published advice identifying opportunities for master’s graduates to strengthen school teams collectively, not by requiring all teachers to obtain a master’s degree, but by enabling masters and bachelors to work together in complementary roles. Research carried out in 2018 by the Centre for Educational Research (SONO) pointed in the same direction.

"When they discover they can only be paid at bachelor’s level, the disappointment is considerable and they look elsewhere for career opportunities"

These reports highlighted several advantages: attracting a broader and more diverse range of teachers, creating opportunities for career progression among bachelor-qualified teachers, encouraging professional learning between colleagues, and strengthening the direct connection between primary schools and universities in order to bring more scientific research into primary education.

The presence of teachers with master’s degrees in primary education is by no means unusual internationally. Education systems make different choices. In countries such as Finland and Germany, a master’s degree is required to work as a primary school teacher, while in other places, including England, a bachelor’s degree is sufficient but teachers with master’s degrees also work in schools and are remunerated accordingly.

Flanders does not need simply to copy these international models. A master’s degree does not automatically make someone a better teacher, and requiring all teachers to hold a master’s degree could create additional barriers to entering a profession already facing shortages. Yet this is not what the VLOR and SONO reports proposed. The choice is not between schools staffed exclusively by bachelor-qualified teachers or exclusively by master’s graduates. The question is whether there should be room for both within the same school team.

Breaking the flat career structure

Teachers seeking intellectual development and professional growth can now pursue a master’s degree, but they still find few opportunities within primary schools to put that additional expertise to use. Teachers who go on to study educational sciences or psychology, for example, often move into educational support services, school networks, pupil guidance centres, learning support centres or the inspectorate. In effect, primary education finances its own brain drain: those who continue to develop professionally are offered better opportunities elsewhere.

Thanks to a master’s degree specifically focused on primary education, teachers with academic ambitions no longer need to choose programmes that automatically lead them away from primary schools.

Attracting new profiles

The master’s programme is not only intended to retain experienced teachers; it can also attract new profiles into primary education. For years, teacher education institutions have expressed concerns about the entry-level competences of prospective students enrolling in professional bachelor programmes. Through entry tests and remedial support, universities of applied sciences work to address gaps in essential skills. At the same time, however, the profession must become more attractive to young people for whom academic progression is an important consideration when choosing a degree.

How important that perspective can be became clear during a conversation between lecturer Roos Van Gasse (KU Leuven) and an interested eighteen-year-old prospective student. The student was enthusiastic about the prospect of completing a professional bachelor’s degree followed by the new Master’s in Primary Education. Once she learned that she would not be able to receive a master’s salary while working in primary education, her enthusiasm disappeared. “Choose another degree instead,” her parents advised.

Flanders is also losing talented career changers. Els Consuegra, Chair of Teacher Education at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), encounters applicants every year who hold master’s degrees and wish to move into primary education after a first career in industry or the private sector.

“They are inspiring individuals, but when they discover they can only be paid at bachelor’s level, the disappointment is considerable and they look elsewhere for career opportunities.”

For precisely this reason, the Committee of Wise Persons also recommended in 2023 that a genuine career ladder be created for teachers. Led by Dirk Van Damme, the committee argued that primary education should make room for different qualification levels. Teams consisting of graduate, bachelor and master-qualified staff could work together in complementary ways, each contributing their own expertise. This would create opportunities for progression, improve the distribution of educational responsibilities and give schools greater scope for innovation.

Towards the end of the previous legislative term, this vision became more concrete. In 2023, universities of applied sciences and research universities signed a declaration of commitment with then Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts aimed at strengthening educational quality. The new Master’s in Primary Education formed part of that agreement.

A distinctive feature of these programmes was that the Flemish legislator imposed particularly stringent requirements. They had to be developed in co-creation with the professional field and designed and delivered jointly by universities of applied sciences and research universities. This ensured strong alignment between bachelor’s and master’s curricula and helped guarantee the programme’s relevance to practice, including through a focus on themes and assignments derived from current challenges facing schools.

An appropriate professional status is still lacking

The programmes attracted around one hundred students in their first year. Yet for those who have now graduated, one crucial component is still missing: an appropriate professional status and corresponding remuneration.

Students enrolled in the programme knowing that the salary scale for master’s graduates had not yet been settled. They trusted that clarity would be provided before they graduated. That clarity is still lacking today.

This is about more than pay. It concerns whether Flanders genuinely intends to make use of the expertise it has created within its primary schools, or whether it is content to see that expertise employed elsewhere in the education sector, including educational support services, the inspectorate and higher education institutions.

The history of the Master’s in Primary Education appears remarkably logical when one considers the policy advice, research findings and decisions that preceded it. For years, experts argued for attracting more diverse profiles into the profession, creating better opportunities for career progression, strengthening the connection between research and practice, and developing a career structure capable of attracting and retaining talent. The programme was then established accordingly.

One final piece of the puzzle is now missing: ensuring that those trained as masters for primary education can also work in primary education as masters. We therefore call on those negotiating the new career framework for teachers to look beyond tomorrow’s budgetary concerns. Seize this opportunity to build a sustainable system in which complementary professional profiles can flourish at every level of education.

The first graduates of the Master’s in Primary Education are ready. The question now is whether Flanders is prepared to recognise them and ensure that they remain in our primary schools.