The teacher training college is getting whiter
The knowledge level had to be raised and we succeeded. But the battery of knowledge tests that students have to pass, scares off potential teacher training students, especially immigrants. As a result, the teacher training college is becoming a small, white program. While there is an immense teacher shortage.
She sacrificed her summer vacation to be able to attend the teacher training college. Day in, day out, she was busy with the ten periods that are covered in the history subject, the eight core themes of geography and the ten core concepts of nature and technology. Unknown subject matter for Nora, a Moroccan from Rotterdam who completed the secondary vocational education teaching assistant last year and would love to become a teacher. She would like to say something about the obstacles she encounters, but would rather not use her last name in the Education Magazine.
Tests
Since 2015, MBO students are only allowed to start the teacher training college if they have passed the entry tests geography, history and nature & technology. Havists who do not have these subjects in their profile must also take the tests. Nora prepared herself for the tests all by herself. She could have followed the PABO transition program at the ROC or the tutoring provided by the three PABOs in Rotterdam, but she should have done that in addition to completing her MBO education. "That was too much for me at the same time."
Her MBO friends were put off by the tests. “But I wanted to go for it, take my chance. I found it difficult on my own, I panic quite quickly. ” The keys were “tough, you have to know a lot”. But Nora made it. In September she was allowed to start the teacher training college at the Hogeschool Rotterdam.
Cultural divide
There a new gap awaited, this time a cultural one.
“I was the only Moroccan girl in class. That made me feel really uncomfortable ”, admits Nora.
“I am from Rotterdam and have always attended black schools. So I'm used to it being the other way around: a class with only two or three Dutch students. ” She survived the first period of school in that white class, but then asked if she could transfer. “I am now in a class with a Turkish and three other Moroccan students and I feel more at home. We really don't do everything together, we also work in mixed groups. But I just need someone I can hang out with. ”
But now Nora is already worried about the next hurdle, the arithmetic test (Wiscat) that she has to pass this year in order to continue to the second year. "You only have three chances for that and I have already failed once, so panic strikes again a bit." Nora has discovered that there are homework institutes that offer Wiscat training. Erasmus Education, a Rotterdam institute that updates teacher training students throughout the country, prepares you for the math test for 149 euros in two days. Not nothing, but Nora prefers not to take risks. "I have to pass that test, so if I have the money, I will do that training."
Then an even bigger stumbling block awaits her. In the third year, the knowledge base tests language and arithmetic are taken. If you do not pass it, you cannot graduate. Especially the math test is a killer. Fifth and sixth year students who only have to pass that test are at each teacher training college.
Teacher shortage
“The level of knowledge at the teacher training college had to be raised and we succeeded, but new problems have been created as a result,” says Ron Bormans, president of the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Due to the arithmetic and language tests, the knowledge base and the intake tests, PABO has become one of the most selective higher professional education programs and that scares many students.
At the turn of the century, teacher training colleges still attracted some 2015 first-years, in 3900 there were only 32 first-years left. The introduction of the intake tests reduced the intake by XNUMX percent in one year. It is not surprising that MBO students in particular are staying away and teacher training courses are also losing a large part of their immigrant intake.
At Hogeschool Rotterdam, the intake tests even halved the intake. “In 2015 we went from twelve to six first-year classes in one fell swoop,” says Annemarie van Efferink, propaedeutic coordinator at the teacher training college. “And the immigrant student has dropped out quite a bit. We used to have a class and a half, now there are still a handful of immigrant students left. ” It is the national trend. In 2015, only 174 immigrant students started the teacher training college, the previous year there were 456.
Small, white training
The intake is on the rise again this academic year. In September 4200 first-years started the teacher training college, an increase of 8 percent. But only 184 first-year students are of non-Western descent, 10 more than in 2015. The PABO, once by far the largest higher professional education program, is therefore becoming a small, white program. That is a major problem, because the large cities in the Randstad are already struggling with a shortage of teachers. With teacher grants, welcome bonuses and affordable housing, municipalities try to attract teachers from outside to the city.
Van Efferink does not expect miracles from this. "Teachers are really not going to teach a hundred kilometers away." And getting them so crazy to stand in front of the classroom in South Rotterdam, where the need is greatest, becomes even more difficult. "Someone who grew up in Charlois would like to teach there, but it is difficult for students from North Rotterdam to cross the bridge." Rotterdam will have to fish in its own pond, but there are mainly immigrant young people there for whom the teacher training college has become an inaccessible stronghold.
So you don't have to be a huge math mathematician to predict that disaster awaits major cities, says Van Efferink. “Soon there will be people from the teacher training college who can count and spell well, but we no longer have teachers who want to stand in front of a multicultural class.”
Read full story from Education magazine 3 of 11 February 2017. It states, among other things, that homework institutes are now doing good business and that in recent years there has been too much emphasis on the cognitive level of the teacher.
