Work stress, time use and turnover among school leaders

TALIS is the OECD’s international survey of teachers and school leaders, repeated every five years. In the Netherlands it was carried out by the Kohnstamm Institute with the University of Amsterdam (UvA), IVA Onderwijs, Fontys and Ipsos I&O, commissioned by the NRO, the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research. The 2024 round involved 140 primary schools with 132 school leaders and 84 secondary schools with 78 school leaders. The response rate fell short of the international standard, so the data have been weighted and carry a note in the OECD report. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) sent the report to the House of Representatives on 7 October 2025. Almost all school leaders are satisfied with their job, yet half experience a lot of stress. In secondary education the share rose from 25 per cent in 2018 to 46 per cent in 2024, in primary education from 49 to 59 per cent. The teacher shortage and administration are the biggest sources of stress in both sectors; in secondary education, keeping up with constantly changing government requirements comes on top. A quarter of primary school leaders and one in five in secondary are considering leaving education within five years, and those who are considering it more often experience severe work stress.

Where the time goes was studied by MOOZ, CAOP, Centerdata and Fontys, commissioned by OCW. Their final report of 23 November 2025 is based on 2,721 questionnaires from school leaders, teachers and support staff at 618 school sites in primary, secondary and special education, plus six focus groups. School leaders spend about a third of their time on administration and internal meetings and a quarter on school development, including staff development and their own professional development. Ad hoc work, such as covering for sick staff, does most to undermine their sense of control. The strongest obstacles school leaders cite are a lack of structural funding, the shortage of qualified teachers and too little time for instructional leadership; two thirds face at least one of these. Support from the board is clearly linked: of the third of school leaders scoring highest on learning leadership, 66 per cent are satisfied with that support, against 37 per cent in the lowest-scoring third.

Using microdata from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Voion, the labour market fund for secondary education, followed all school leaders in secondary education between 2016 and 2023. In 2023 there were 4,337 of them. Of those who were school leaders in 2016, 51 per cent were still in that role after five years and 36 per cent after seven, and 52 per cent had left secondary education within seven years. Between 2017 and 2023 the outflow to jobs outside secondary education rose from 8 to 13 per cent, and between 2016 and 2023 the share of temporary contracts also rose from 8 to 13 per cent. Since 2021, however, more school leaders have been joining than leaving, and according to Centerdata the shortage fell from 4.3 to 3.5 per cent of employment between 2023 and 2024.

The Inspectorate of Education brings it all together in its Staat van het Onderwijs (State of Education) of 15 April 2026. The foreword describes a working day that starts with finding cover for a sick teacher and then fills up with administration, parents and meetings with the municipality. The shortage of school leadership in primary education fell to 461 FTEs, or 6.2 per cent, on 1 October 2025, from 9.8 per cent a year earlier. According to the Inspectorate there is no clear explanation; one possibility is that school leaders more often run several schools: 28 per cent of primary school leaders say they are responsible for more than one school or site. The Inspectorate describes school leaders as overstretched and asks school leaders and boards to agree together which tasks could be done differently, for example by an administrative assistant or by spreading responsibilities across the team.

How solid is this? Three separate measurements within six months point the same way, and TALIS shows an increase between 2018 and 2024. The Inspectorate builds on TALIS for its stress figures and therefore does not count as a separate measurement. The falling shortage of school leaders shows that the labour market does not make the picture clear-cut, and a longer series on work stress is still missing.