Cabinet lowers requirements for admission to pabo
The cabinet wants to abolish the entrance exams for the PABO, so that the programs attract more first-years. Those who do not yet have the required knowledge can catch up in the first year.
Picture: Type tank
Dat writes outgoing minister Van Engelshoven to the House of Representatives. The teacher training colleges have proposed the plan themselves and she supports it.
Because too few young people go to teacher training colleges, given the major teacher shortage. This year there are more than 7.700 first-years. In general, things are going in the right direction, but there should be more.
swept away
Since 2015, there have been entrance tests for the PABO if students do not have certain school subjects in their curriculum. The prospective students should know enough about geography, history and nature & technology beforehand.
Since then, MBO students in particular have been attending these courses much less often to become teachers in primary education. You could see that problem coming from afar, but the then minister Bussemaker brushed aside the objections.
Former education minister Bussemaker brushed aside the objections of the admission tests
MBO students to PABO
At the beginning of October, Van Engelshoven wanted to investigate what she could do to get MBO students back to the teacher training college. She wondered: if a quarter of the MBO students do not pass those admission tests, can they not be given a little more time to acquire the knowledge? You could also test them in the first year of study.
The teacher training colleges have meanwhile written an action plan that Minister Van Engelshoven has sent to the House of Representatives. They also believe that these admission tests should be abolished.
Foreknowledge
If the minister and the teacher training colleges have their way, there will be a policy experiment. The teacher training colleges may continue to test the knowledge of their prospective students before the start of the training. If the students do not yet meet the requirements, they can retake the tests in the first academic year. Only if it still does not work, they should leave the training. In this way, the study programs could also do with maths, they think.
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