'Decrease in average class size says nothing about workload'
When making policy, the government relies too much on a national average when it comes to group sizes. Those figures say nothing about the actual situation and the workload in schools, he writes AObdirector Eugenie Stolk in a letter to the House. "There are still classes in different places." Stolk again argues for a maximum average of 23 students per class at a school.
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The House of Representatives is debating the subject today. Stolk therefore asks the MPs her letter for attention to the question of why schools opt for large classes and whether teaching staff are involved in that decision.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show that the average group size in primary education fell from 23,3 pupils in 2015 to 23,1 pupils in 2017.
Theory
'Mean classes only exist in theory', writes Stolk. 'You don't see what the variation is. Certainly with appropriate education, classes of 23 students can differ like day and night. A possible decrease says nothing about the workload.' Stolk writes that the figures look completely different when they are divided over other categories. 'Ten percent of all groups in primary education have 30 or more pupils, that is 5200 classes. 13 thousand classes have 27 or more students.'
'Certainly with appropriate education, classes of 23 students can differ like day and night', writes AObdirector Eugenie Stolk at the House of Representatives.
In addition to an average maximum per school, Stolk also asks for a transparent study of class size. That inventory must be improved, for example by releasing underlying figures and not only working with averages, but also including absolute numbers.
Border
At the Jonge Kind congress in Bussum, kindergarten teachers also called for education minister Arie Slob last week to set a limit (see the video below). They want fewer children in the classroom, so that they can pay more attention to the students. In comments to the video on the Facebook page of the AOb tell teachers about their big class. As one teacher writes: 'I have 37 students. Three more will be added and the children have different mother tongues, such as Polish, Russian, Afghan and Dutch.'
Read the whole brief of AObdirector Eugenie Stolk to the members of parliament. Want to follow a debate in the House of Representatives? Go to the website of the House of Representatives.
