Roc's see VAVO courses shrinking

Tekst Karen Hagen - webredactie - 15 februari 2021 - 4 Minuten om te lezen

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Figures from the MBO council, the representative of the school boards, show this. On a VAVO course, (underage) students can obtain a basic qualification if, for example, they fail the final exam at secondary school. They then retake a number of subjects in order to obtain a diploma or partial certificate at the vmbo-tl, havo or vwo levels. Transferees with an 'incorrect package of subjects' can also take extra subjects that are necessary for their higher vocational education, for example.

Corona exam

The decrease is mainly due to the share of secondary school students who dropped last year, says Marije Hulsbosch, spokesperson for the MBO council. Due to the adjustments in the final exams in the year 2019-2020 - due to corona - more students were eligible for a diploma, she said. 'These young people could therefore immediately start further education.' The Council also sees a decline in the number of MBO and HBO students who register for VAVO on average, because schools and institutions less often issue binding negative study advice due to corona.

The strongest decline was among VWO students with almost 44 percent fewer registrations this school year compared to a year earlier. Followed by secondary school students from VMBO-tl with a decline of 42,6 percent. Havisten also enrolled a lot less than the 2019-2020 school year.

Source: MBO Council

The cause is the graduation rates at secondary schools in 2020, because they were higher wrote Education minister Arie Slob already in October last year to the Lower House. He deleted the central final exams due to corona and only the school exams counted towards the final diploma. More students ended their secondary school career with a diploma because of this decision: 98,7 percent passed. In 2019 this was a percentage of 92 percent.
Slob explains the higher pass rate because students had more resit opportunities, they were able to practice more specifically for exams because they had a better view of their starting position and had more preparation time.

Stopped

It is causing a shift in the VAVO intake. Roc De Leijgraaf in Oss, for example, will no longer offer adult education from this school year. “The registrations were already low, but due to the higher success rate in secondary education, the flush was very thin,” says spokesperson Caroline van Veen. “It was no longer profitable to keep the training in Oss going. We properly referred all students to rocs in Den Bosch and Eindhoven. ” Van Veen does not think that her roc will start a VAVO again soon. “That is not to be expected. The teachers who taught at VAVO started working within the ROC. ”

Due to the higher pass rate in secondary education, the flush became very thin

In Arnhem, at Roc Rijn IJssel, they saw registrations decline, just like in the rest of the country. “We saw 33 percent fewer registrations,” says Wouter Groothedde of the roc. “Normally it is a very stable course with a fixed group of people. Within our roc it is a separate branch of sport, because many secondary teachers work there. This year we will focus on this training. This works because we also receive subsidies for catch-up programs. If we really had half the number of registrations, then something had to be done. For the time being it is not a problem and in the long term we expect those students to return. ”

Social sciences teacher Philip Hoenderdaal Genet of Amsterdam's Joke Smit College speaks of a drop of 35 percent in their student body. “Fortunately, a large part of our group does not fall under the 'Rutte scheme' (outsourced secondary school students who have failed), but over-18s who fall under government funding. I hope that my colleagues with a temporary contract will get a permanent contract, but that is of course quite difficult when you have to deal with a declining student base.”

The spokesperson for Ster College, part of Summa College, says that it is still a matter of 'coffee grounds to see whether it is a temporary development. "We now think it's related to the number of students who graduated from high school." The Nova College Vavo with locations in Haarlem, Amstelveen and Hoofddorp also makes notification in the annual report of the 'corona exam' and the consequences thereof in the registrations.

New decision

Last week outgoing minister Slob announced that he has taken a new decision on the final exams. The final exams will continue, but students may receive an extra fail, as long as it is not in a core subject. What influence this will have on the vavo will become apparent next school year, according to several ROCs.

Also read: 'AOb-members divided about continuing central exams'