Minister wants to improve the transfer of MBO students to PABO
Minister Van Engelshoven is concerned about the declining registrations at the teacher training colleges. She wants to investigate how more MBO students can go to the PABO without this being at the expense of the PABO level.
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PvdA MP De Hoop called on the minister on Wednesday to do something about the faltering transfer from MBO to PABO. In view of the enormous teacher shortage, he believes that the Netherlands cannot afford for a quarter of the candidates to fail the admission tests. He understands that the teacher training colleges should not lose too much time updating students to the same starting level, but is it no idea that MBO prepares its students better?
Other MPs reacted strongly: MP Peters (CDA) pointed out that a quarter of children currently leave education "as functionally illiterate". Does De Hoop want to solve the teacher shortage by lowering the admission standard for people who do not have the level and by giving them a diploma?
neck hairs
“The hairs on the back of the neck stood on end” for PVV MP Beertema: according to him, the transition from MBO to PABO is more difficult because very little is done in MBO for general education. “After all, we want students in the teacher training colleges whose language and numeracy skills are just up to par.”
D66 Member of Parliament Paul van Meenen: 'That you are not allowed to go to the teacher training college if you do not know how many pistils a sunflower has, I do not accept that'
De Hoop assured that the graduation level at the PABOs should not be lowered, but that he does hope that the minister will look into how more MBO students can go to the PABO. Then at least they get a chance to reach the required level.
He received support from D66, which even wants to get rid of the admission tests altogether. “We have suggested that before,” said MP Van Meenen, “and now that the teacher shortage is getting bigger, it seems logical to me that we should look at this again.” According to him, it is certainly not at the expense of quality, because at the end of the training you can set very strict requirements. “That you can't go to the teacher training college if you don't know how many pistils a sunflower has, I don't agree with that.”
Don't lower the bar
His party colleague Minister Van Engelshoven does not want to go that far, but in her view looking at the admission tests certainly does not mean that we 're going to lower the bar and the learning outcomes of the teacher training college'. She wants to investigate, among other things, whether MBO can better prepare its students for the PABO “so that they have actually already passed the PABO admission tests”.
It also does not rule out the possibility that the tests will only be taken in the first year. That does require extra guidance, and the minister wants to discuss this with the teacher training colleges. Before the budget debate in mid-November, the minister will send the House a letter about how to proceed with the admission tests. A study will also be ready by then into the effects of the halving of the first two years of tuition fees on the intake of teacher training courses.
