Slob does not change the order of school advice for primary education
Education Minister Arie Slob does not alter the order of the school recommendations for eighth graders and final tests. The teacher's judgment remains leading. The minister does want the final test to be taken earlier in the year - immediately after the school advice.
Picture: National government
Last Friday, the Council of Ministers approved Slob's proposal. In his letter the minister writes to the House of Representatives that he has confidence in the professional judgment of the teacher. After all, the teacher has a 'broad picture of the development and competences of the child', the minister writes in the letter.
School advice leading
Since 2014-2015, the final test is no longer the guiding principle for determining the school level of pupils in group 8, but the advice of the teachers. Slob wants to keep it that way, despite it being expected in February this year the coalition votes to take the final test for the school advice again, so that teachers have all the data and results when they give the advice.
I have confidence in the professional judgment of the teacher. In addition, I think it is important that the pressure to perform well on the final test for students and their parents does not increase further
At the moment, primary schools must have the school recommendations ready before 1 March. After that, the students take the final test in April or May. If their score is higher than the school advice, teachers should reconsider their advice. What is new is that Slob wants to bring the final test forward: immediately after the school advice, schools must take the test in the first half of March. The minister believes that this will prevent additional test training.
Rural moment
There will also be one national moment when the school recommendations are final and all pupils can register with secondary schools. The minister wants this to happen on May 1. It must prevent pupils from being able to go to their school of choice when adjusting the school advice.
For equity it is, according to the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) and the Social and Cultural Planning Office, it is good to take the final test first instead of the school advice. The final test helps to correct 'subconsciously lower expectations among teachers', according to the CPB.
Slob writes in his letter that there is no 'scientific consensus' for this. He chooses to respond to the call from schools to stick to the policy that has been set in motion. In order to improve equality of opportunity in school advice and to give teachers more guidance with articulate parents, the minister intends to make a guide.
Providers of final tests
Slob also announced that as far as he is concerned, the government will no longer offer the Central Final Test. There are plenty of private parties that offer final tests. "The necessity has therefore disappeared," said the minister. Schools can take this final test, but then there must be a party that takes over the Central Final Test.
The government will no longer offer the Central Final Test
The Board for Tests and Examinations (CvTE) will be the party that will monitor the quality of all final tests and assess whether new tests are allowed and how the tests can be compared with each other. Currently, the CvTE only does this for the Central Final Test and there is another party that does this for all other tests. Slob wants to put an end to this, partly because of this the debacle with the calculation error which caused test results to be incorrectly calculated for about 20 eighth graders. 'The divided allocation of responsibilities is vulnerable', writes Slob.
