The official working group wants to invest heavily in education
Invest in education. In short, that is the message of an official working group towards the elections. Because the government has not properly fulfilled its core task - good education and equal learning opportunities. A shame, because good education is 'a condition for broad prosperity'.
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A remarkable report by officials of education, finance and the Central Planning Bureau (CPB), among others, argues for large-scale investments to get the quality of basic education in order. Just 'getting the foundation in order' requires 650 million euros for primary and secondary education. The most far-reaching investment plans over the longer term for both sectors amount to more than 7 billion.
Pruning hard
The report Foundation in order: high-quality education for everyone is part of a thick package of official studies where investments or where cutbacks must or can be made. The letter from coordinating Minister Hoekstra (Finance) contains a disclaimer that the corona crisis can of course put everything in a different light. But the message from the official working group is hard as nails.
The government has 'not clearly fulfilled its core task in education', in plain language: neglected. It goes wrong with 'ensuring quality and offering equal learning opportunities', the working group writes. This can be solved by 'mainly investments in the quality of teachers, school leaders and school boards'. The workload of teachers is too high, the teacher shortage is frustrating, and there is no attractive career perspective. But education also has to get started, because school boards focus too little on quality. And all this is desperately needed, because 'good education is an important condition for widespread prosperity.'
The report lacks a labor market analysis of teachers with an academic background
Salary up
In total, the report comes with seven possible variants. In most plans, the salary in primary education has to be increased further in order to catch up with other higher vocational education students. The committee considers this less necessary for secondary school teachers with a higher professional education degree. Strangely enough, the report lacks an analysis of the labor market position of teachers in primary and secondary education with an academic education.
Civil servants want to tackle the workload by giving students fewer teaching hours and using the available time for better preparation and professionalization. In one of the variants, investments are made in three-year guidance for starters. In addition to the introduction of a new curriculum and substantial investments in pre-school and disadvantaged education, the committee is also looking further. In the most far-reaching variant, a lot of money is allocated to a single publicly funded childcare and education system from zero to twelve or fourteen.
Savings vendor
In addition to the investment plans, a cutback variant was also calculated, because that was the assignment. Save 20 percent on primary and secondary education. The committee resolves this by a substantial discount on the lump sum of four billion. The average class size then goes from 21 to 28 students. Less teaching time is not taken up by giving teachers more time for professionalisation. The committee does not want to take this option really seriously. Because then quality improvement and maintaining equal opportunities 'become difficult'.
Only small schools in rural areas
In addition, there are measures that, according to the Committee, are well worth considering in order to make better use of the available money. For example, there are too many small schools where this is not necessary. Instead of the expensive small school supplement, funding should be based on population density, so that only small schools can still exist in rural areas. A measure also taken by the Inspectorate of Education in the State of Education and in the McKinsey report A reinforced foundation for everyone. Free school books are also up for discussion, as is the free school visit to the Rijksmuseum and parliament.
Many parts of the investment plans correspond to what the AOb early 2019 wrote in the note 'Invest in education'. This memorandum also describes for mbo and hbo where extra money is most needed.
