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Dutch education in decline

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28/12/2010Dutch education in decline

Better teachers produce better pupils. That's the unsurprising conclusion of the triennial Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) education report.

The surprising part? It also finds that the Dutch education system is no longer in the world top five. But what to do? Education Minister Marja van Bijsterveld wants to reduce the number of subjects taught at high schools.

In 2004, Dutch secondary education was still within the top five in world rankings. Two years ago, a parliamentary inquiry raised the alarm: the Netherlands wasn't at the top anymore and was falling fast. Since then it has dropped only further, from eighth to tenth position. But Chris Sigaloff argues that is largely the result of the improved performance of several Asian countries.

As head of LINK, an independent think-tank focused on education, Sigaloff attended the presentation of the OECD’s PISA report in Brussels.

“Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea score very high. I used to think such countries only excelled in cognitive subjects, which merely involve reproducing knowledge. The report, however, does not only assess how well pupils reproduce facts but, above all, to what extent they use them in a creative way."

Reforms
To restore Dutch education’s place in the world top five, the education minister immediately announced two steps: reducing the number of subjects pupils can take and limiting the number of streams from four to two: one for the sciences and another for the humanities. That means returning to the way things used to be.

The Labour opposition party sees the potential return to just two curricula as too drastic a step. As Metin Celik, the Labour MP specialising in education, says, “For us, that really is too radical. Such a plan is not based on rational thinking but the result of a wish to save money. Such curricula would overlook the talents of many students. It simply won’t work. To make the most of the particular talents of each pupil you have to deepen each of the different curricula.”

Teachers

Celik criticises says the minister’s proposal ignores the importance of good teachers; an idea which is supported by the PISA report. Nowhere, according to the report, does the quality of education exceed the quality of the teachers.
“Good teachers are the single most important prerequisite for a good educational system. The report has also measured the role of class size and teacher salaries. High salaries, it found, help improve the quality of teaching much more than smaller groups,” says Sigaloff.

Creative subjects

Simply focusing on the sciences does not seem to be the answer either. The countries that did well in the report boast educational systems that promote creative disciplines as well as sciences. What works best, it turns out, is a variety of subjects, taught by qualified, well-paid teachers. But that means spending money— the last thing the new government wants.