‘MBO students can participate in KEI week this year’, the organization of the annual introduction week for first-year students in Groningen cheered in a press release. But a little later in the text it turned out that it was a bit more nuanced.
Only fifty of the several thousand MBO students who will start their education in the coming academic year will be admitted to one of the largest student introductions in the Netherlands. That is relatively less than a handful. Should all first-year students be admitted to MBO?
Yes, say 67 percent of the participants. “It makes no difference what kind of training they do. An MBO course is the same as all the others,” writes one participant. ,,What kind of nonsense is that that a KEI week should be linked to education level?”, another wonders.
Opponents (33 percent) believe that an MBO education is not necessarily the same as an HBO or university study: ,,In my opinion, MBO students, however valuable they may be to society, are not students. A student is someone who has a university education. In my opinion, the fact that someone in secondary vocational education is also called a student is a rape of the concept. Where do you study? In kindergarten.”
“My daughter is still 15 when she starts secondary vocational education. I don’t think it needs to be submerged in the student drinking fest. Her time will come. From the age of 18 is fine to participate in the KEI week”, writes another opponent.