'Minister continues curriculum revision, despite concerns about support'
Education minister Arie Slob wants to keep up the pace in updating the curriculum in primary and secondary education. He adjusts the follow-up program on a number of points. For example, a temporary scientific committee will be set up to consider the proposals. AObdirector Jelmer Evers: "The minister persists, while our surveys show that there are many concerns."
Picture: Type tank
In a letter to the House of Representatives today, Slob announced how he intends to proceed with the renewal of the curriculum. In October last year the proposals were delivered per learning area, such as people & nature and arithmetic & mathematics. If everything goes according to plan, schools will start working with the new curriculum from 2023/2024, the minister said know earlier.
Slob registers today his letter that he will set up a temporary scientific committee. That will happen this summer. This committee will have an advisory role and will be the first to consider the proposals that are currently in place and will issue advice on them in the autumn of 2020. Later, the committee members will look at the assignment given to the SLO expertise center. These experts work out the core objectives and learning outcomes. The coherence between subjects in secondary education is another topic that the committee will examine.
Eventually a permanent committee with a 'broad composition' will follow, only a - time-consuming - amendment of the law is required for this.
Unclear
“There is a lot unclear,” says AObdriver Evers about the change of Slob. “Who is on that committee, for example? And it is important whether they can make adjustments to the submitted proposals or even reject them. Indeed, our surveys show that there is fundamental criticism of the structure and content of the proposed learning areas. Teachers are concerned about the lack of attention to basic knowledge and skills. ”
Who is on that committee and can the committee make adjustments to the submitted proposals or even reject them
In addition, education staff clearly indicated in the investigation indicates that there are more urgent problems - and that was before the corona crisis. Evers: “Initially, investments will have to be made in education in order to get the preconditions in order, such as less work pressure and enough colleagues. Of course, teachers want to improve education, but there must be room for that.”
Necessary innovations
The minister is announcing another change for the upper years of secondary education. He says that necessary innovations will be introduced there immediately. First up are the subjects of Dutch, mathematics and modern foreign languages. For this, as in primary education and lower secondary education, proposals are not first submitted by development teams.
The involvement of teachers and support is not sufficiently guaranteed
Slob does not want to burden teachers and school leaders unnecessarily with the changed approach. 'At the moment, teachers and school leaders are working hard to restart education at school, and to identify and remedy any gaps in the development of their students,' he said. he writes. From 2021/2022, however, schools can test the new core objectives in practice. They must be given enough time, space and support for this.
Pack
“The involvement of teachers and the support base is not guaranteed enough,” says Evers. “They must be included in the process and not just test the results afterwards. And as far as support is concerned, staff must actually be able to be exempted from work so that there is time to research and try out the new curriculum. ”
