Weyts: “Results in vocational education are bad” | Inland

Pupils leave vocational education with major craters in their basic knowledge. Certain final objectives are achieved by less than one in three students, it appeared earlier this month.

3,000 students took part in the PAV test – which included math, writing and listening. Only 26 percent achieve the attainment targets for functional math skills, 34 percent for functional reading skills and 30 percent for functional listening skills.

“There will be a corona impact. It is difficult to estimate how big it is. But even if we are voluntaristic about that, the results are still bad,” said Weyts.

Compared to the previous trial in 2013, a major evolution in the student population can be seen. The number of students who do not speak Dutch at home has increased by 8 percent. The group that combines Dutch with another language at home has decreased by 10 percent. “That’s disturbing,” Weyts said. “But to what extent the shifts are related to the decline in performance is hard to say.”

The minister does not want to lower the bar for BSO in the future. “General education is absolutely important for young people in vocational education. Both for the labor market and for being able to participate fully in society.”

The promotion campaigns for TSO and BSO have not been able to lead to the necessary appreciation, he concluded. The government had hoped to be able to make a positive choice from TSO and BSO. Weyts now wants to try to focus on a better orientation in order to still achieve this.

In addition, he hopes to make the courses more attractive through dual learning and by strengthening the STEM competences. He also wants to focus more on the regional technical centres, which must gear the offer of vocational education to the wishes and needs of the local labor market.