KNAW: "More academics at secondary schools"
The balance in the teaching staff at secondary schools tends to shift towards higher vocational education teachers, and that is not good, thinks the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW).
image: Pixabay
Especially in pre-university education it is important that students are taught by teachers who are themselves forerunners in their profession, according to the KNAW. It published an August 10 research and her call.
Last school year, almost a quarter of a million students were in the senior years of HAVO or VWO. Officially, this group may only be taught by 'first graders': teachers who have obtained their teaching qualifications specifically for this purpose.
More and more graduates with a diploma are retiring
Such a first-degree qualification can be obtained through a master's degree at higher vocational education as well as at university - through a university teacher training course. The latter category is declining sharply. Partly because many first-graders with an academic background are retiring.
Critical attitude
“It is important that students become acquainted with the critical attitude within science. (...) And not just being offered the knowledge of that's how it works and not asking any further questions," said KNAW Vice President Wim van Saarloos in a explanation on NPO Radio 1. For the subjects mathematics, physics, chemistry and German, about half of the first grade teachers came from higher professional education in 2015. The KNAW calculated that 37 percent of the first-graders were HBO graduates on average across all subjects.
Disappointed
Former director of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH) Ad de Graaf is disappointed in the narrow vision of the KNAW. Teacher shortages in primary and secondary education are pressing and much greater at the moment. Therefore, do not only focus on university teacher training, he says De Graaf on the website of Scienceguide.
