'Graduation must be given to teachers again'
"We have made the preparation and assessment of final exams so complicated that hardly anyone knows what it is like anymore. Teachers sometimes no longer see a connection between the performance of their students in class and the result of the exam. That is worrying."
Statue: Algemene Onderwijsbond
This was stated by MPs Lisa Westerveld (GroenLinks) and Paul van Meenen (D66) on a Monday evening AOb-meeting for teachers of exam classes.
From a survey by the AOb, which was filled in by some 1600 teachers from exam classes, it turned out last week that teachers are very critical of the exams. According to the respondents, the central final exam often does not test what it should test. Many teachers also want more control over the content of the exam, and the correction models are said to be often below par.
“Minister Slob wants to change a number of things about the exams,” says AObdirector Henrik de Moel. "We want the voice of teachers to be heard in the House of Representatives." Next week the MPs will meet about the final exams.
Distrust
The general complaint yesterday on the AObmeeting came to the fore in many different ways, is that the exams are currently too much outside the control of teachers. “There is organized mistrust,” said one participant. “Everything is arranged outside of us: from drawing up the exam questions to drawing up the correction models. While we, as teachers, are the experts. ”
The N-term can no longer be explained. Nor me - and I studied math anyway
There also appeared to be great misunderstanding about the operation and development of the N-term - the standard that determines the final result of the exam. “I come from a time when you could just have bad luck or luck, because the physics exam that year happened to be easy or difficult,” says MP Van Meenen.
Complicated
Since then, attempts have been made to eliminate those differences and to make the exams more comparable over the years. Van Meenen: “But because of this 'equalizing urge', we have also achieved that lecturers no longer recognize themselves in the results of the exams. The N-term is really unexplainable. Not to me either – and I studied mathematics anyway.”
“We have made the system so complicated that no one knows how it works anymore,” says Westerveld of GroenLinks. “The final exam must again be for teachers. I will do my very best for that in the Chamber. ”
