General

The intake at teacher training in Dutch is dwindling

While the enrollment in Dutch bachelor's programs has halved in seven years, student numbers in university teacher training programs are also declining. Will there still be enough teachers of Dutch for the upper years of HAVO and VWO?

Tekst Hoger Onderwijspersbureau (HOP) - 4 maart 2019 - 2 Minuten om te lezen

Image: Pixabay

Last week, the VU University took the final decision to phase out its languishing Dutch specialization of the Bachelor of Literature & Society. With six first-years it was no longer possible to keep it going, the board stated. Minister Van Engelshoven understood this and wrote that students in Amsterdam can fortunately also go to the UvA's Dutch study program. Politicians reacted indignantly.

Literature

Many Dutch people are also concerned. In 2018, the universities had only 201 first-year students of Dutch - half less than in 2011. They think it is high time that Dutch school subject became more attractive. More attention should be paid to literature again.

If that does not happen, there will soon be too few students and teachers of Dutch. “Even if all the Dutch graduates become Dutch teachers, we have too few of them”, Nijmegen professor Marc van Oostendorp warned in the newspaper Trouw. “And they don't choose that. Dutch people also go to work at a publishing house, become a journalist or work in communication. ”

Deficiency

At the beginning of this year, the ministry published a study into the labor market of teachers. It states that although there will be a shortage of Dutch teachers in 2018, this will decrease in the coming years. The unmet demand for second-grade teachers is relatively smaller than that for first-graders, who are allowed to teach in upper secondary education.

The researchers based their predictions on, among other things, the numbers of teachers graduating up to and including 2016. But what about the intake at the six university teacher training courses (first grade)? Inquiries there show that the registration figures are declining. The VU University is still doing reasonably well in terms of intake compared to Tilburg, Groningen and the University of Amsterdam.

First degree WO	2014/2015	2015/2016	2016/2017	2017/2018	2018/2019
University of Amsterdam	19	18	9	5	7
Radboud University	16	11	21	12	14
University of Utrecht	28	40	26	20	23
Free University	14	15	28	8	13
Tilburg	16	12	9	14	6
University of Groningen (RUG)	16	13	12	10	7
Total	109	109	105	69	70

HBO

On the other hand, the influx into first-grade teacher training in higher professional education is picking up slightly. There, the number of freshmen rose from 76 in 2014 to 94 in 2018.

First-degree HBO intake	2014/2015	2015/2016	2016/2017	2017/2018	2018/2019
Fontys	17	13	20	28	19
University of applied sciences of Utrecht	25	26	27	24	27
HvA	15	15	10	11	14
HAN	9	8	10	12	18
NHL Stenden	10	12	9	11	16
Total	76	74	76	86	94

But here too the omens are unfavorable. In 2014, 312 first-year students enrolled in the higher professional education courses for second-degree teachers of Dutch. Last September there were only 234. In 2017, Inholland University of Applied Sciences decided to phase out its teacher training courses. At that time only ten first-years were registered in Dutch.

Inflow second-degree higher vocational education	2014/2015	2015/2016	2016/2017	2017/2018	2018/2019
Windesheim University of Applied Sciences	36	33	34	37	18
Driestar Educational	6	4	10	5	7
Fontys	44	51	54	45	28
In Holland	6	8	10
Rotterdam Business School	52	31	47	42	41
University of applied sciences of Utrecht	37	24	33	28	26
HvA	60	44	40	40	42
HAN	36	49	32	42	44
NHL Stenden	35	23	23	36	28

Total

312

267

283

275

234

When added together, universities and universities of applied sciences are training less and less first-degree Dutch teachers. In 2014 they counted 185 first-years and in 2018 a further 164. Time will tell what the effect will be on the teacher shortage.