The Picasso Lyceum has almost exclusively received unsatisfactory marks from the Inspectorate. He is not happy with the experimental method of teaching that the secondary school in Zoetermeer has introduced this school year.
In 2020, umbrella organization Lucas Onderwijs took over a number of Zoetermeers schools, including Picasso, which was experiencing a sharp decline in student numbers. Picasso used the takeover and 3 million euros in subsidy from the municipality to further renew education at the school. The new school plan caused a lot of commotion at the school last summer. Fifteen of the sixty teachers left and the participation council successfully took the school board before the Disputes Committee.
The commotion was mainly caused by the switch from a 60-minute schedule to instruction of half an hour per lesson per week, also for exam subjects. After that half hour, the students work independently on a ‘learning square’, under the guidance of teachers and a teaching assistant. Students are not sufficiently supervised on those squares, the Education Inspectorate writes report which was published last week. They also find it difficult to work independently for so long at a time. “Students are distracted by all kinds of non-school matters.”
Shortcomings
It is also “unclear” who is responsible for monitoring student development, the report states. In addition to regular teachers, they also have a personal ‘coach’ who must monitor their progress. According to the Inspectorate, both the coach and the subject teacher have little time to monitor, register and analyze students.
Due to all the shortcomings, some students stay away from school “with some regularity”.
There were also all kinds of practical problems at the beginning of the school year. Not all students had the “correct information” about their class schedule. There were students who could not access the digital systems and who did not have the necessary teaching materials. There were also many staff changes and class cancellations.
Although the implementation leaves much to be desired, the Inspectorate is pleased with the “vision, ambitions and goals” of the Picasso Lyceum. The school also currently scores sufficiently on “educational results”, but the Inspectorate does note that it is looking at the results from 2019. “Given the worrying quality of education, it is important that the school closely monitors the results.”
“I prefer to look to the future rather than the past,” says interim rector Marien Smits. He says he immediately “got to work” after his appointment in September.
Students now no longer have half an hour of instruction per subject per week, but one, two, or two and a half hours. “And we are working hard to gain a better insight into the students, into how they are doing cognitively, but also socially-emotionally,” says Smits.
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