More than 22 thousand VMBO students with a Lwoo backpack less

Tekst arno kersten - redactie onderwijsblad - 21 juni 2018 - 4 Minuten om te lezen

Image: Pixabay

A few years ago, one in ten students in secondary education had a backpack through learning support, or lwoo for short. This is a form of light support intended for students who need extra guidance in VMBO. For example, because they suffer from a learning delay in language or arithmetic or a lower IQ, whether or not in combination with social-emotional problems. With such a backpack, approximately 4300 euros per student, schools can use extra hands in the classroom or put together smaller groups. In this way, these students can still obtain a regular VMBO diploma.

Pupils in learning support education (lwoo)

Source: OCW / DUO

Until 2016, a regional referral committee established the LWOO indications. More than 2015 students had such an indication in October 1. Since 2016 January 75, learning support education, just like practical training, has come under the direction of the XNUMX partnerships in secondary education. They are now responsible for the lwoo stamps. But they have also been given the opportunity to let go of the national criteria and conditions for Lwoo indications.

And they are increasingly seizing that opportunity, according to new figures. In the meantime, 42 regions, more than half, have opted for a form of 'opting out', as it is called in policy jargon. They say it gives schools more freedom in making choices and organizing appropriate education. But there are also risks involved. Freedom for schools and partnerships requires transparency and supervision, critics emphasize. Are the money pots used wisely? Do they benefit the students who need it? And are these learning disadvantages all in the picture?

'Opting out' in 42 of the 75 partnerships in secondary education:

Click on a region to view information about that partnership. Source: Education Inspectorate; editing: the Education Magazine

So many regions, so many flavors. Some regions maintain the LWOO registration, but are departing from the national criteria for allocation. Others drop the predicate itself, yet others even stop with indication altogether. By letting go of the lwoo predicate, regions can divide the support budget between the schools in a different way. Take the partnership VO3101 in the north of Limburg. In recent years, more than XNUMX Lwoo pupils have disappeared from the statistics here. “The number of special needs pupils is not decreasing, but the allocation of the labels is,” explains director Ilse Dewael.

The money has not suddenly evaporated, it is distributed in a different way. Schools determine what they need to guide all of their students. Including students with an earlier LWOO indication, but also students with a smaller request for help. The 'old' lwoo predicate draws a strict boundary based on a research score: a backpack or not. Now it is possible to take borderline cases more into account and offer more customized support, says Dewael. The assessment by the transferring primary school plays an important role in this. "It makes schools think in a different way about their support offer."

Decrease / increase of pupils in lwoo 2017-2015:

Click on a region to view information about that partnership. Source: DUO; editing: the Education Magazine

Energy

Jan Houwing, director of the partnership VO2001 Appropriate Education Groningen, mentions another advantage of the new situation: less bureaucracy. For example, applying for an LWOO indication through the former referral committees took a lot of time and energy. Yet they maintain the indication in Groningen. Unlike our colleagues in Venlo, where the lwoo budget will be added to the general basic support starting this year. There, in North Limburg, the money is now distributed among the schools via a distribution key. The budget is then fixed for four years, so that schools know where they stand.

In Groningen they make a different decision. Indicating helps to expressly visualize the care students, and maintains a clearer link between the student and the invisible backpack. “That also means that there is no fixed budget for the schools. If you have fewer special needs students the following year, you will also receive less money. ”

Step-by-step

There is another difference between both regions. Groningen will receive additional funding in the coming years: around 2,5 million euros, a considerable plus compared to the old budget. In Limburg they have to tighten their belts. There they get 6,5 tons less to spend, a minus of 8 percent. This is a consequence of the national redistribution of the heavy support budget that is implemented in both primary and secondary education. Regions that previously made above-average demands on resources for specialized education (roughly speaking the south and east) will have to give up money step by step in the coming years.

In the other half of the country, the west and north, partnerships are seeing their budgets grow. It is obvious that with a shrinking budget the pressure on - and the importance of - basic support will increase. The consequences of the radical financial equalization, which have been linked to appropriate education from the start, are also being followed with suspicion in The Hague.

This article appeared in the Education Magazine of June 2018.