Growth at PABO, contraction at teacher training programs in secondary education
With 146 first-years more than in 2021, the teacher training colleges are slightly higher than in 10. That is where the positive news for the education sector ends. Teacher training programs for vocational and secondary education will shrink by XNUMX percent. The same goes for the academies of physical education.
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The number of new students who have opted for an education course is down, just like the entire higher professional education sector, according to new data from the Education Executive Agency. A total of 5 percent fewer first-year students enrolled at the universities of applied sciences together this academic year. The picture is mixed in educational programmes. A small plus with the PABO and considerable growth with the associate degrees (short HBO) for support functions. Big minuses at both the academies for physical education and the teacher training programs for secondary education.
After the peak of two years ago, the upward trend is very slow
In the longer term, interest in PABOs has been on the rise again since the low point of 2015, but the upward trend is very slow after the peak two years ago. 146 more first-years is very nice, but if you convert that into profit for the 24 teacher training colleges, you end up with 6 new extra enrollments compared to a year earlier. Not nearly enough to fill the teacher shortage in four years' time.
Moreover, the distribution of profit and loss across the country is rather unbalanced. The positives are mainly in the teacher training courses for primary education in the north, Zeeland, Overijssel and Brabant. The cities with large deficits are not doing well. For example, the number of first-years at the PABOs in Amsterdam (-20 percent), The Hague (-16 percent) and Utrecht (-10 percent) is falling. Almere remains stable and Rotterdam is the only large city to attract 91 extra first-year students out of the three teacher training colleges (+ 20 percent).
Shortened HBO is growing rapidly
The first-degree master's programs for the senior years of HAVO and VWO are holding up reasonably well, where the decline is only 2 percent. The second-level teacher training programs for lower secondary education and senior secondary vocational education are having a more difficult time, with 11 percent fewer first-year students than in 2021. Technology subjects, modern foreign languages, physics, chemistry and mathematics are all getting hit hard.
The only group of educational programs with a significant increase are the associate degrees for assistants and support staff. This short two-year higher professional education program has a rapidly growing range for primary, secondary and secondary vocational education. In 2018 there were only 200 students, which has more than tripled to 730 at the start of this academic year.
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