The seventh grade is getting narrower
In the big cities, pupils are being pre-sorted for one type of education at an earlier stage. And that is at the expense of children from underprivileged backgrounds. The municipality of Amsterdam is trying to turn the tide with a 'broad seventh grade bonus'. Alderman Marjolein Moorman will be a guest at a AObwebinar.
Picture: Rosa Snijders
A gap is emerging in society. And it already starts in secondary education. On one side of the ravine is the school for HAVO or VWO, especially for the children of higher educated parents. On the other hand, the school stands for VMBO. Pupils from both schools end up in two very different bubbles, which they will not get out of for the rest of their lives.
That picture emerges from the report Going to school together or separately that the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) published in February this year. And that should change, says the SCP. Secondary education should be a place where children from different social backgrounds meet, so that they learn to deal with social and cultural differences. And where late bloomers have the opportunity to reach a higher level of education.
Is dwindling
This would be ideal in broad school communities and broad bridging classes, where children from different backgrounds sit together in the same class. However, the trend is exactly the other way around. The number of broad comprehensive schools and broad bridging classes is dwindling in the large cities. As a result of which pupils are placed at one educational level at an earlier stage.
Thursday evening April 15 the AOb for its members a webinar about broad bridging classes with the Amsterdam Alderman for Education Marjolein Moorman. The online meeting starts at 19.30 pm with a presentation by the alderman, after which there is plenty of time to ask her questions. In order to really start a conversation with each other, breakout rooms are then created, in which participants discuss various statements in smaller groups. More information and register via the header below.
webinar Broad Bridge Classes April 15
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Picture: Rosa Snijders
The loss of broad bridging classes is due to the law of supply and demand, the SCP researchers conclude after discussions with school leaders, teachers and parents. Because school boards respond to the wishes of parents, and the higher educated parents want 'a school without hassle', as one of those parents summed it up. Driven by this wish, school boards are increasingly trying to physically separate their HAVO and VWO departments from VMBO.
School boards respond to the wishes of parents, and the higher educated parents want 'a school without hassle', as one of those parents summed it up
According to the SCP, this works better in the big city than in the countryside. Because the population density is less in rural areas, where broad bridging classes are necessary because otherwise the student numbers per type of education would be too low. But things are different in the big city and the types of education are increasingly separated from each other.
The easiest way to achieve this separation is to accommodate the two types of education at different locations. But if VWO, HAVO and VMBO are forced to be in the same building complex, there are creative solutions to prevent groups of students from coming into contact with each other. Such as, the SCP noted, separate breaks for VMBO and HAVO / VWO students, walls between two departments or the closing of a connecting tunnel between two wings of a building.
Jump forward
In addition to parents and school boards, teachers play a role in the narrowing of secondary education, says SCP. Those teachers recognize, on the one hand, the socializing function of education. And teachers are well aware that this function benefits from contact between social groups of various levels. However, teachers are not judged on the socialization of the students, but on the transfer of knowledge. And that transfer is easier in a more homogeneously composed class.
Anyone who has arrived at this point in the SCP report expects the researchers to make a proposal for a radical change to the education system. Because significant measures seem to be needed to break the principle by which parents, administrators and teachers keep each other imprisoned with the best of intentions. Get rid of all those fences and those walls between educational types, make room for broad schools and broad bridge classes.
Such a proposal would not come out of the blue. Because in recent years there has also been criticism from other quarters of the Dutch narrow bridge classes. 'Early selection leads to greater inequality in school performance between students from different social backgrounds', university teachers Louise Elffers and Thijs Bol wrote last year, for example. de Volkskrant.
Early selection leads to greater inequality in school performance between students from different social backgrounds
PhD candidate Lotte Scheeren participated last year Trouw a penny in the bag with her findings. 'If Dutch girls were allowed to make their choice for secondary school not at the age of twelve, but, for example, at the age of fourteen (as in Italy) or even at the age of sixteen (in Sweden and Finland), then there is a good chance that they will end up at a higher school level. ' According to the PhD student, we would find the biggest leap forward among girls from migrant families and disadvantaged backgrounds.
The national government also has problems with selecting students earlier. 'Due to the reduced supply of broad bridging classes, there is a risk that children will obtain a diploma that is below their potential capacity,' the report says Foundation in order from 2020. And whoever needs ammunition to denounce the dichotomy in education, can of course watch the documentary classes looking back at the NPO at the end of last year.
Shudder
However, the SCP is afraid of a major change in the education system. There are various reasons for this, says researcher Monique Turkenburg. In the first place, the SCP is generally wary of system changes in education, because these have not always yielded good results in the past. Moreover, this time of corona lag is not really the best time to turn the entire system upside down. Furthermore, the problem of narrowing education is, as mentioned, mainly in the big cities. “Outside the big cities, pre-university students and pre-vocational secondary education students still meet each other at school,” says Turkenburg. "The question of course remains whether they also interact with each other, but at least they are in the same building."
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Picture: Rosa Snijders
The SCP has therefore opted for a different method to broaden the schools and bridging classes in the cities. Turkenburg: “Municipalities can hold administrators accountable for their social responsibility. And municipalities could, with a good story, also take parents along to think in a broader sense. ” Finally, municipalities can support community schools and broad bridging classes through the funding conditions.
Municipalities have very little room to steer. The policy is largely determined by the national government, or decentralized by the schools themselves
That is easy to say, says alderman Marjolein Moorman of the municipality of Amsterdam. Because municipalities lack influence in the schools. “Municipalities have very little room to control. Policy is largely determined by central government, or locally by the schools themselves. ”
Yet alderman Moorman, also known from the documentary, tries classes, to do what the SCP advises: steer through the funding conditions. Recently, an Amsterdam 'broad first year bonus' of 155 thousand euros per year has been introduced for schools that offer such a first class. Schools can use this money to support teachers, for example. “You can't just say: You have a broad seventh grade here, just start teaching it,” says Moorman. "You must always be able to support the teacher, as a professional, if there is a need for it."
Panic disorder
The problem with the bonus, however, is that Amsterdam has to pay for it out of its own pocket. “It is actually crazy that as a municipality you have to allocate money for this yourself,” says Moorman. "That has to be done at a national level."
Isn't a system change necessary after all? Moorman does not rule it out. “Everyone always panics from such a change, but let's just see what we can learn from other countries. Many European countries select the pupils later or at fewer educational levels than we do in the Netherlands. Our early selection and the narrowing range promote the drifting of groups in society and the emergence of a class society. Let's start a conversation about that. ”
Broad bridge classes in the coalition agreement?
How do the political parties feel about postponing the selection of students? The Social and Cultural Planning Office mapped this out in the report Issues for choosing, that appeared in March. "Postponing the selection of students is a way to promote equality of opportunity," says SCP. Various political parties are responding to this by arguing for the postponement of that selection. 'Either by postponing the moment of selection across the board (D66, Denk, GroenLinks and the PvdA), or in a less far-reaching form by offering more space for intermediate classes that combine different levels of education (CDA and ChristenUnie).' The customized diploma in which students in different subjects can take exams at different levels is also a form of postponement of selection, according to the SCP. 'After all, this makes it possible to deal with levels more flexibly. This is the only form of postponement advocated for a party like the VVD. ' Furthermore, postponement of selection is 'mainly a preference of parties on the left and the middle of the political spectrum'.
This article appeared in the April issue of the Onderwijsblad. The Education Magazine is included in the mail eleven times a year AObmembers. Know more about the benefits of the AOb-membership? Click here.
