The Netherlands scores lower at exactly on the PISA list

Tekst Robert Sikkes - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 6 december 2016 - 3 Minuten om te lezen

Science is, according to the OECD, the initiator of the PISA study, an essential subject for the development of the economy. And that runs from research into healthy food to the development of electric cars, says OECD CEO Angel Gurría. That is why this edition paid extra attention to the natural sciences subjects such as physics, chemistry, engineering and biology. In many countries this is a combination subject under the title science.

Unauthorized Teachers

It is striking that in the Netherlands in these subjects regularly participates in mutual school competitions in the natural sciences, the Olympiads for the exact subjects. This is beneficial for performance, the OECD study makes clear.

Unqualified teachers in the classroom depress performance, and this is common in all countries. But according to the study, the Netherlands scores exceptionally poorly on that point. Just like Austria, Switzerland and the Buenos Aires region, which have the highest percentages of non-fully qualified teachers in disadvantaged schools. That reduces the performance for that group by about eight points. In any case, with 82 percent of qualified natural sciences teachers, the Netherlands has far fewer than top countries such as Japan, Singapore and Estonia.

An important recommendation from the OECD is to make the course as attractive as possible to qualified teachers, plus an incentive for them to keep up with their course. According to the PISA report, this requires a competitive salary and many opportunities for further training.

Alarming decline in science

All in all, the Netherlands drops in score in science to 509, after school performance was stable at around 522 for years. With thirteen points less, the Dutch youngsters remain in the second tier, but the decline is alarming. Incidentally, performance fell in many countries, as did the OECD average, which is well above the Netherlands. Incidentally, Dutch children enjoy science subjects significantly less than their classmates in most countries and dangle somewhere at the bottom in terms of motivation.

The OECD looked at which factors are good for school performance. For example, it seems that the science results are better in large schools. There are more labs available and more often better trained teachers. The amount of teaching hours spent on science also makes a difference: more hours mean better performance. It is precisely about good lessons at school, when there is a lot of homework, or extra tutoring, then the scores are lower. Classes became smaller in most countries, the Netherlands, with a small group, is one of the exceptions where classes became fuller.

Math performance decreased, reading stable

In addition to science, PISA 2015 also looked at the school performance of 523-year-olds in reading and mathematics. In mathematics too, the performance dropped sharply, from 512 to 508. The Netherlands now ranks just below the top ten in the international rankings, because Canada and Estonia have started to score better. When it comes to reading, performance by OECD standards remains fairly stable, even though there has been a slight downward trend over the years. Now the Dutch score is XNUMX, eight points less than three years ago, but still around the average of all five PISA studies in fifteen years.

The rankings

Science ranking 2015:

Mathematics ranking 2015

Reading 2015 ranking: