Inspectorate again sounds the alarm about basic skills
The downward trend in the mastery of basic skills, such as language and arithmetic, but also citizenship, must be reversed quickly. That is also possible.
Image: Pixabay
With that message, the Education Inspectorate confirms this afternoon published State of education largely her concerned call of the past year. “History keeps repeating itself”, responds AOb-chairman Tamar van Gelder. “This report is a repeat of last year. Corona and the teacher shortage ensure that the quality has gone down again in its full width. That is an extremely serious matter. Our education has been the world leader for years, but slowly but surely it is declining. Education has not been given the priority it deserves for years.”
Corona and the teacher shortage ensure that the quality has gone down in its entirety
Thorough
According to the Inspectorate, the goal of thoroughly tackling basic skills education has not yet got off the ground in the past year, partly as a result of the pandemic. This is problematic because the lack of basic skills harms the ability of young people to participate fully in society.
There is no current national view of what pupils can do at the end of primary school
It is remarkable that the Inspectorate, despite its gloomy story, has to recognize that in the Netherlands there are barely visible is on the mastery of basic skills. In order to get a grip on the development of basic skills, the government introduced so-called reference levels for language and arithmetic in 2010. Until recently, national developments could be measured on the basis of performance on the Cito final test, but that picture is now clouded.
'Since the arrival of several test providers in 2015, there has been diversity in the final tests and their standards,' the Inspectorate writes in its annual report. 'We have not yet succeeded in achieving comparability. This means that there is no current national overview of what pupils can do at the end of primary school in the field of reading, language learning and math.'
bend
The Inspectorate nevertheless emphasizes that it is possible to reverse the disappointing trend in basic skills, as has been achieved in Ireland and Sweden. That would even be possible in two years, by focusing on the professionalization of teachers, although 'investing in training is not always easy in this time of an increasing shortage of teachers and school leaders', the Inspectorate also acknowledges.
The point of departure for improvement is that politics gives Dutch education the opportunity to really focus on basic skills and does not constantly demand attention in the curriculum for other matters. In its argument, the Inspectorate puts citizenship skills on the same level as language and arithmetic. That is not obvious, as it turned out last week in debate with Minister Dennis Wiersma of Education (VVD). “For me, basic skills are language and arithmetic,” said D66 education spokesperson Paul van Meenen. “The minister mentions digital literacy and citizenship. I really see a big difference.”
There is no long-standing tradition in examining citizenship
There is a decades-long tradition in the examination, testing and standardization of language and mathematics, something that does not apply to citizenship and digital literacy. Last week it seemed that Minister Wiersma prepared is this difference to take into account in its action plans to improve basic skills.
Hopeful
In the process of improving basic skills, the Inspectorate advocates the use of methods that have been scientifically proven to work. These proven effective interventions are being used more and more, partly thanks to the National Education Programme, although according to the Inspectorate there is still room for improvement in the application of these interventions.
Years of neglect is unfortunately not easily solved
“It is hopeful that more resources have now been made available for education,” says Van Gelder. “Unfortunately, we come a long way, years of neglect cannot be solved easily. if AOb we want to work hard to get as many colleagues as possible back for education. This can only go well if the work becomes attractive again across the board. We just need more people.”
Also read the conclusions of the inspection for the higher education. Always stay informed of the latest education news from your education sector. Download the AOb-members app in the Google Playstore of Apple Store
