Where the light was not: Failure in education

For years we have stood by while the educational system in The Netherlands has deteriorated. This is a contentious statement and one that requires both defining and defending. As importantly—no, more importantly—the problem demands a solution. That there has been a steady decline in the educational system at all levels from primary education through university education has been amply documented, not the least of which was the Dijsselbloem-led “Parlementair Onderzoek” report published in 2008. That there is a greater need than ever for a well-educated society has also become obvious as we compete increasingly with countries like China and India not just in the economic marketplace but in the intellectual and philosophical marketplaces as well. Further, due to pure demographics, both China and India have more students in the top 1% of their children than The Netherlands has children. Who are the “we” that have simply stood by, or worse yet, aided and abetted what professor J.D. Imelman (emeritus hoogleraar pedagogiek) has described as a crime? We are the teachers and the educational administrators, the civil servants, the politicians, and the ministers, the voters, the citizens and the parents. “We” are the Dutch society. In the most fundamental sense—and with only the possible exclusion of the students themselves—we are all to blame. And what needs to be done? First, a sense-of-urgency is required. The current economic crisis is the opportunity we need. To quote Rahm Emanuel, chief-of-staff to President Obama, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” To move from our current state of passivity to one of activity, we need to mobilize teachers at every level to directly address the body politic and its representatives in the Tweede Kamer. We need the full support of the Royal Family. We need to place both responsibility and authority for education in the hands of those that have as a primary (and ambitious) goal the implementation of no less than the finest educational system in the world. A country of the scale of The Netherlands can both seek and achieve this goal. Finally, we need to embrace the idea that without a solid foundation in fundamental skills, learned in the earliest phases of the educational process, we will cede our future to others

I.T. Young

20-5-2009 13:00:00