Fewer students attend practical education, probably due to a transfer test | Domestic
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The number of registrations for practical training has fallen significantly. On average, the number of registrations drops by 14 percent. The suspected cause? The so-called progression test, which has replaced the final test in group eight since this year.
Almost half of all schools for practical education have received fewer registrations for the coming school year. On average this concerns 14 percent fewer students, but there are outliers. In Rotterdam, for example, this concerns 25 percent fewer registrations and in Almere 35 percent. In Zutphen it is even about 50 percent. This is evident from a survey by the Practical Education Sector Council.
Spokesperson for the Secondary Education Council Stan Temeer calls the decline in inflow problematic. “Both for the students themselves and the schools. The question for the students is whether they end up in the right place. And for schools it means having to lay off staff. If students still come one or two years later, a school has to hire new teachers.”
Different level
How is it possible that fewer students are going to practical education? Have students suddenly become smarter en masse, or is the test easier this year? That is not the reason, says the Board for Testing and Examinations, although they have not yet been able to analyze all the results. That analysis is not expected to be completed until September.
This test only puts the emphasis on higher, higher and higher
Nicole Teeuwen, chairman of the Practical Education Sector Council
The introduction of the advancement test may be the cause. This test was designed to give every student the same opportunities. Because the teacher’s advice can be (un)consciously influenced by prejudices, that advice must now be adjusted upwards if a student scores higher on the test. That obligation is new this year.
The fear is that students will not be able to cope with that adjusted level. Nicole Teeuwen, chairman of the Practical Education Sector Council, calls this traumatizing: “If children have to go to practical education, it is extremely bad for their self-confidence. They are disappointed in themselves and become demotivated.”
It already happens that students cannot cope with the ‘higher’ school level. Practical schools have to deal with a large number of lateral entrants in the higher years, according to figures from the Education Executive Agency. These are students who have to go to practical education from pre-vocational secondary education.
This development is due to ‘promising’ advice, says Teeuwen. “During the corona crisis, children could not go to school for a long time. The then Minister of Education Arie Slob (Christian Union, ed.) believed that teachers should provide promising advice, with a child’s capabilities in mind. Students were then given too high a recommendation and later dropped out.”
Double message
According to Teeuwen, the fact that the advice has to be adjusted as a result of the advancement test does not work in the long term. “It is a general measure: everyone receives a higher recommendation. But that’s exactly what sticks. Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (D66) does not allow us to say ‘higher’ or ‘lower’, but this test puts the emphasis on higher, higher and higher. That is a double message from the same ministry.”
It is not yet clear whether the change in intake is also visible at other school levels. The Secondary Education Council is currently investigating this.
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