Collection campaign for ‘unpaid’ teacher

Collection campaign for ‘unpaid’ teacher

 

 

A lecturer in mathematics at TU Eindhoven was fired in 1995, but he himself thinks very differently. For 332 months he has been teaching students unpaid. One of them started a fundraising campaign, which has already raised more than 7,500 euros.

 

Gert Regterschot’s lessons are wildly popular, according to an article in Dutch newspaper NRC. He does not receive a salary, so he lived off his savings, gift vouchers from students and the deposit from bottles he finds, but the bottom is in sight.

 

In a statement, the TU/e says it “believes that Mr Regterschot gets a lot of satisfaction from teaching and that he does it out of good intentions”. But within the Faculty of Architecture, he allegedly told more and more students and staff that he was an employee who had not been paid for many years. “This unfortunately created a nuisance and created feelings of insecurity,” the university writes. Since that ‘turning point’, he is no longer allowed to teach in TU/e classrooms. He remains welcome on campus, the university said.

 

Why he was fired? According to a ruling by the Central Appeals Council, he did too little research and got into serious conflicts with colleagues. He himself says he made reports of cross-border behaviour. (HOP, BB)