Special education is growing in the Randstad and Brabant

Tekst Arno Kersten - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 8 februari 2018 - 3 Minuten om te lezen

Source: Google Maps / Fusion Tables

Parts of Flevoland, Zeeland and Gelderland also show growth in special education. This is evident from a data analysis by the Education magazine.

In Overijssel, Drenthe and South Limburg, the number of SO students has fallen in recent years. Due to a national redistribution, these regions will receive less money for special needs pupils. This also applies to North Brabant.

Minister Slob recently sent national figures on appropriate education to the House of Representatives. To provide insight into the regional differences, the Education magazine has visualized the pupil counts of the Education Executive Agency per partnership in primary education. The mutual differences are large: from a third more SO students to a third less.

Primary school

Pupil development special education 2014-2017
Blue: decrease. Yellow / brown: increase. Click on the map for details per partnership.

In the map below, the relative pupil development in special education is compared with that in regular primary education.

Pupil development in special education compared to primary education
Green: special education is shrinking faster than primary education or growing less quickly. Purple: special education grows faster or shrinks less quickly.

Secondary education

Pupil development in special secondary education 2014-2017

In the map below the relative pupil development in special secondary education is set off against that in regular secondary education.

Pupil development in special secondary education compared to secondary education
Green: VSO is shrinking faster than regular secondary education or growing less quickly. Purple: VSO grows faster or shrinks less quickly.

Redistribution

With a equalization of budgets for pupils with special needs, half of the partnerships will gradually receive additional money. That money comes from the other half, where regions sometimes lose a third of the old budget.

The regions where special education has shrunk the most since 2014 are almost all affected by this cut.

The regions where special education has grown the fastest show a somewhat more varied picture. In the 'top twenty' of these partnerships, half have considerably more money to spend. The other half has a stable or decreasing budget.

Growth

Earlier this week, determined national figures were released on (secondary) special education. They hardly differ from the preliminary census from November.

Compared to 2016, special education is growing - for the first time in years - by more than seven hundred pupils (2,4%). Half of that increase can be attributed to cluster-2.

Special secondary education is shrinking by 275 pupils (0,7%). This decrease is largely due to a decrease in cluster-2. Clusters-1 and -2 (pupils with a visual, auditory or communication disability) fall under a national system and are independent of regional partnerships.

Together, so and vso have grown a little bit last year. Compared to 2014, there is still a decrease.

The same applies to special primary education (SBO). Compared to the previous school year, there is a minimal growth of 99 pupils (0,3%). Since 2014, the number of SBO students has fallen by almost 2900, a decrease of eight percent.

Pupils in (secondary) special education

Source: DUO / OCW. GJI: Closed institution

By far the largest part of (secondary) special education - just under 58 thousand students this school year - falls under the responsibility of 152 regional partnerships: 77 in primary and 75 in secondary education.