News item | 10-05-2023 | 11:00 am
The Education Inspectorate today presented the State of Education 2023. This annual report provides an overview of trends and developments in the education system. It shows what is going well, but also what can and should be improved. This year, the Inspectorate will take a closer look at the important themes of basic skills, equality of opportunity and well-equipped teachers. The challenges identified by the Inspectorate are recognizable and are at the top of the cabinet’s agenda. To this end, this government has made major investments in all education sectors.
Robbert Dijkgraaf, Minister of Education, Culture and Science: “The State of Education helps to further improve education. All pupils and students deserve good education and good supervision. Education must also offer the same opportunities to everyone. This is at the top of all our agreements with the education sectors. For example, tackling internship discrimination in MBO and adding lots as a selection instrument at colleges and universities. These are important steps towards greater equality of opportunity. The well-being of students is also rightly given a lot of attention in the State of Education. The pressure to perform is high, I hear that when I talk to students. I find that very worrying. So I’m taking a series of measures to help improve that. In higher education, for example, I want to relax the binding study advice in the first year, the return of the basic grant offers more financial peace of mind, and I earmark 15 million euros annually for an approach to student welfare at colleges and universities. Finally, I invest in increasing the intake and preventing dropouts in teacher training.”
Dennis Wiersma, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education: “Good – and therefore better! – learning to read, write and count and equal opportunities for every child is what we work hard on every day. If the basic skills are in order and you feel comfortable at school, you will benefit from this for the rest of your life. That is good for all of us, because well-educated people are invaluable for the future of our country. With regard to basic skills, there must be a trend break as soon as possible. It is crucial to have enough – and therefore more! – have good and motivated teachers for the classroom. We pull out all the stops on that point too. We must ensure that the teaching profession is and remains attractive, so that teachers and school leaders enjoy working in education and more people want to work in education. The Inspectorate identifies bright spots, which we cherish. We are not yet satisfied with that, we want to turn the tide further. That is exactly what we do, together with everyone in and around education.”