What is in the ‘master plan’ of the Education Minister?
The ten-page letter that Dennis Wiersma sent to the House of Representatives on Thursday morning is the first step in the ‘master plan for education’ as announced in the coalition agreement. Following the recent advice of the Education Inspectorate, Wiersma wants schools to focus again on basic skills.
Too many students are now leaving education without good reading, writing and arithmetic skills or digital skills. Wiersma hopes to reverse this trend as soon as possible. About five hundred schools can already make use of a subsidy scheme in the coming school year, with which they can, for example, finance extra teaching hours in basic skills .
There will also be special support teams of experts who can relieve teachers of tasks, so that they can focus on providing good education. There is no shortage of money: the government allocates 1 billion euros annually to improve education, on top of the annual 1.5 billion euros that is set aside to reduce work pressure and increase education salaries.
Who exactly do these emergency teams consist of?
Wiersma cannot say that yet. This strongly depends on what schools need: in a primary school where many children are bullied, a hired ‘bullying coach’ could pay attention to this, so that teachers have more time for math and language. Elsewhere it can be useful if someone from outside takes care of the marking work. Libraries are also mentioned in the master plan: they can, for example, offer part of their collection at schools or deploy reading consultants to support pupils in reading education.
The deployment of external experts is sensitive in education. ‘What schools certainly don’t need is for external parties to come and tell you how it should all be done,’ warns the PO council, the advocate of primary education. According to Wiersma, the school and the teacher remain leading.
There is already a teacher shortage, where does Wiersma get these extra people from?
The minister speaks of a ‘major job’ to find enough external experts. Certainly if all eight thousand schools in primary and secondary education will soon be able to call on the support teams, as he envisions.
‘It is not to be hoped that this will withdraw people from the educational process when there is already a teacher shortage,’ warns the VO Council, the sector organization for secondary education. ‘And you don’t want to mobilize the entire commercial market either.’
Jaap Scheerens, emeritus professor of Educational Organization at the University of Twente: ‘I think it is first necessary to clearly map out what know-how is available and how it can be recruited. This should not become a party for organizational consultants.’
That’s not going to happen, Wiersma responds when asked. There will be no ‘highly paid consultants who tell you what is needed and then leave when the real work begins’. The support teams consist of ‘real help and hands with the work in the school’.
Are schools themselves interested in focusing on basic skills?
Not all schools are eager, thinks emeritus professor Scheerens. There is a fairly popular movement in education that is precisely ‘anti-achievement-oriented’ and thus places more importance on the well-being of students than on the acquisition of knowledge. ‘It is commendable that the government is now starting to direct more clearly.’
In order to gain a better insight into the state of the basic skills of secondary school students in particular, it is important, according to Scheerens, that standard tests are introduced, so that a common benchmark is created. ‘Now we are constantly tweaking attainment targets, core objectives, examination programs and reference levels. That also does not benefit equality.’
Who is going to see to it that schools put more effort into math and language?
If it is up to Wiersma, that task will lie with the Education Inspectorate. That is possible, says spokesperson Daan Jansen, but then the necessary changes must be made in the assessment of schools. ‘There needs to be more focus on basic skills.’
The declining educational performance of recent years is not reflected in the school assessments of the Inspectorate. That is striking, says Jansen. ‘The inspectorate is not handing out more unsatisfactory grades. The question now is: should we look differently? And what is possible within the current legislation and regulations? Together with the ministry, we are going to see how this can be shaped.’