This is true. In the last 15 years, education institutions have been given greater autonomy. The Dutch government has taken a more hands-off role. Governing bodies and schools face more risks (including financial risks), and are therefore joining forces. While this offers benefits, large schools need to keep their eye on the human dimension.
Large education institutions are able to hire professional managers who are better able to deal with the autonomy. But there is also a downside. In recent years, a lot of attention has been given to governance, policymaking and management. The teacher was left on the sidelines. The Education Council believes that teachers should have more influence in education. They should also be given the opportunity to improve or expand their skills.
Furthermore, increases in scale should not have a detrimental effect on the freedom of choice of parents and pupils. The Dutch education system is pluriform: public schools exist alongside Christian schools and alongside schools based on other ideologies. And it should stay this way. Finally, we should endeavour to avoid bureaucracy.
The Education Council’s recommendations to the Minister are:
- restore teachers’ authority over their profession
- ensure schools are organised efficiently and do not become too large
Restore teachers’ authority over their profession
Teachers’ influence has been eroded, and managers’ influence has grown. Find a new balance and give teachers the ownership of their profession back. Of course, the management layer is not superfluous. It provides a proper framework (materials and funding) and a balancing of interests. But the teaching profession needs to be made more attractive. Not just by offering better pay, but by offering better career prospects, a stronger position of the teacher in schools, and an increase in their level of education.
Provide a stimulus for knowledge exchange between teachers and managers through job rotation and by including education management experience places on teacher training programmes. Furthermore, teachers and their representative bodies could organise themselves in a national federation. The Education Council also calls for pay increases for teachers who combine their work with academic research, and bonuses for teachers who work in geographical areas or in subjects with the biggest shortages.
Responses
The Minister and the education community were positive about the proposals to give teachers more influence in education. The publishing of the Education Council’s recommendations coincided with the publication of a report from a government committee on how to deal with teacher shortages. The reports resonated well with each other. The Minister accepted most of the proposals. He made extra funding available for better employment terms, for the strengthening of the position of teachers within schools, for staff training and for support from professional bodies.
The Education Council’s recommendation on bonuses and study-related pay increases for teachers resulted in a deluge of news reports. Opponents were concerned about inequality in employment terms, while supporters applauded better remuneration for teachers who made extra efforts or who had more professional know-how. Everyone agreed that it would take a considerable cultural change to make it happen. A number of professional organisations saw more benefit from an overall salary increase and a reduction in workloads. The Minister considered the proposals interesting, but did not adopt them.
Further reading:
Ensure schools are organised efficiently and do not become too large
Ensure schools focus more strongly on achieving the best possible teaching quality with the current resources. Large-scale cuts are not realistic, but looking to achieve efficiency gains does make sense. Cost-awareness needs to increase in the education sector. Teachers also need to be aware of the cost of education and the components that make up that cost. Teachers and coordinators need the freedom to deploy other educational forms. Effectiveness is important in educational innovation.
Large schools must also take care that the amount spent on bureaucracy is not excessive. Paradoxically, increased autonomy means that schools have a bigger burden from administration and accountability. Furthermore, large schools have many non-teaching staff members. Due to a lack of competition, they do not have any incentive to perform better. This can be combated using the merger check, which is conducted by a dedicated Education Chamber at the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa).
A merger check and a compulsory ‘merger effect report’ prevent situations that would result in only one education provider remaining in a given area. This results in zero choice for parents, pupils and students. If schools do grow large, they should continue to organise their teaching on a small scale.
Finally, the Education Council believes that large education institutions need to work on their legitimacy. They should engage parents and other stakeholders in society in the governance of schools through the supervisory board, social consultations, or via a more robust contribution to the participation councils.
Responses
Recommendations on effectiveness and bureaucracy in education caused excited discussions in the Netherlands. The recommendation on effectiveness caused a deluge of critical reactions. Many related to the proposal of having teachers keep track of their time. The Education Council had intended this as a voluntary measure for reflection, not as a compulsory control tool. But many people thought that the Education Council wanted teachers to account for their time. Similarly, the call for a professional staffing policy which uses satisfaction questionnaires in appraisal interviews, stirred the emotions. Reports appeared in the media that pupils would be appraising their teachers. But there were also representatives from education who thought that time tracking and questionnaires would actually increase the quality of education.
The proposed merger check was received positively. The Minister adopted the recommendations soon after their publication. The merger check will be introduced and there may be a supplement for small schools. Parents, students and staff will have a greater role to play in influencing internal decision-making.
Further reading