Inspectorate breaks lance for better employee participation
Participation councils are an important source of information for boards of universities of applied sciences and universities. But due to the low turnout in elections, among other things, this threatens to dry up, the Education Inspectorate warns.
Picture: Type tank
The inspection presented today published its annual report 'The State of Education'† In this, the Inspectorate takes stock: what is the state of education and where is there room for improvement?
In any case, the performance of employee participation in higher education is not going well, the Inspectorate notes.
Risks
Elected students and employees talk to the board of their educational institution about important themes. 'A well-functioning employee participation body can be an important source of information to identify risks in good time', the inspectorate writes. After all, students and staff know from their own experience what is going on at their university of applied sciences or university.
But due to the low voter turnout at elections, those internal checks and balances are at risk. This constitutes a 'risk for the functioning of the participational body and thus for the provision of information to the board', according to the inspectorate.
Due to low voter turnout in elections, those internal checks and balances are at risk
It is not the first time that alarm bells have gone off about employee participation. The electoral turnout has been declining for years and the support of the councils also leaves something to be desired, research by Berenschot has shown.
Earlier this year, Minister Dijkgraaf said he saw no reason to intervene for the time being. He leaves it up to the educational institutions to provide the right support.
Cybercrime
Another part of 'risk management' that, according to the Education Inspectorate, requires attention is cyber security. Educational institutions have been targeted several times over the years by cybercriminals who demanded ransom after hacking systems. Last year, the Inspectorate already stated that the government should take control and today the Inspectorate warns that more coordination and cooperation is needed in this area.
English
The Inspectorate also paid attention to the Anglicization of education. At the universities, English is becoming increasingly common as the language of instruction, partly due to the increasing number of students from abroad.
This has advantages, but sometimes also leads to difficulties for students and teachers who have a lesser command of English, according to the inspectorate. Moreover, it should not become an 'unintentional means of selection', she warns, because English can frighten off future students.
Anglicisation must not become an unintentional means of selection
The Inspectorate also points out that the number of non-Dutch-language courses in higher professional education is unclear and wants an overview to be made available 'in the short term'.
Distance education
The corona pandemic is also not unmentioned in the annual overview. Students suffered from loneliness and motivation problems and teachers had to deal with a high workload.
But the pandemic has also brought benefits: the digitization of education has accelerated, the ICT infrastructure has improved and the expertise of teachers has increased. Educational institutions logically want to retain those advantages and, according to the Inspectorate, it is therefore important that they develop an 'up-to-date vision on digital education'.
The advantages and disadvantages of distance education must be carefully weighed against each other. 'If this is successful, students can benefit from high-quality and flexible higher education.'
AOb-chairman Tamar van Gelder responded to the State of Education in this news item. The inspectorate also warned of a downward trend in basic skills.
