The education providers are relieved that a consensus has been reached on the minimum goals for basic education for the second and third stages of secondary education. They all seem to agree that schools can develop their own project with what is now on the table.
“Educational quality has nothing to do with the quantity of final objectives, but is about the depth with which you can realize it. And for that you need sufficient teaching time,” says Lieven Boeve, director general of Catholic Education Flanders, the education umbrella organization that went to the Constitutional Court to have the previous attainment targets annulled. According to him, the schools will get that time now. “The decree asks that we literally include the final objectives in our curricula. That was not possible with the destroyed final objectives, but with these minimum objectives,” he says.
Boeve acknowledges that it is a compromise, but speaks of an “acceptable whole”. “What is especially important to us is that no particular approach is imposed. The teacher retains his pedagogical and didactic freedom,” said the top man of Catholic Education.
Also huht community education GO! found the previous attainment targets too overloaded. “That problem has now been solved. We started from the destroyed attainment targets and have reduced them,” explains managing director Koen Pelleriaux.
He realizes that it will still be a lot of work to implement the minimum targets, not only for schools and teachers, but also for educational publishers, for example, who have to provide didactic material. “It will be a difficult year, but there is no alternative,” he says.
The Education Association of Cities and Municipalities (OVSG) is pleased that space is also being given to labor market-oriented courses. “On the basis of clear minimum goals, each school can develop its own curriculum. It is up to the school to add practice or in-depth knowledge. Our schools with a practice-oriented component have always strongly insisted on getting enough space for this. It’s a good thing that this option is now available,” says managing director Walentina Cools.
Also the Provincial Education Flanders (POV), which mainly represents vocational and technical schools, is satisfied with the space their schools are given. “Writing out the curricula gives us the opportunity to set our own ambitions and emphasis for provincial education. We aim for an excellent education in technical subjects and practical subjects,” explains chairman Luk Lemmens.
The POV immediately seizes the opportunity to launch two new subjects: STEM and Thinking Workshop. In the first subject, the aim is for students to come up with solutions for social problems. The Thinking Workshop focuses on developing crucial thinking skills, including analytical, computational, creative and critical thinking.
Finally, there are also positive sounds at the steiner schools, who, just like Catholic Education Flanders, went to the Constitutional Court against the previous attainment targets, because they would give them too little room to set their own accents. For most key competences, there is no problem integrating these minimum goals into the curricula of the Steiner schools, it sounds. For some there is a problem and the Federation of Steiner Schools will submit an application for equivalent educational goals. The Steiner schools already work with different attainment targets.
No more final objectives, but ‘minimum goals’ in secondary education: Weyts reaches agreement with umbrella organizations on reform
The Flemish government wants to get rid of statutory civil servants, but recently gives teachers a permanent appointment twice as quickly: why is that? (+)
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