{"id":114032,"date":"2020-05-28T13:18:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=114032"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:57","slug":"the-best-school-should-be-located-in-the-citys-most-disadvantaged-neighbourhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/05\/28\/the-best-school-should-be-located-in-the-citys-most-disadvantaged-neighbourhood\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The best school should be located in the city\u2019s most disadvantaged neighbourhood\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sociologist of education Iliass El Hadioui believes that pupils who have fallen behind in their studies due to the coronavirus crisis will be able to catch up again. \u201cThe underlying question is a lot more relevant: why do these pupils lag behind their peers in the first place?\u201d Differences in quality between schools are growing increasingly prominent. As a result, children no longer have the same opportunities to improve their lives. El Hadioui feels it is time to sound the alarm: \u201cThe Netherlands is about to lose its top rank.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Dutch education system used to have a great reputation, didn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSince World War II, entire generations of poor pupils have studied their way to better lives. We used to have more of a meritocracy, a system that was all about pupils\u2019 individual efforts, merits and level of motivation, rather than about their parents\u2019 level of education or income. It\u2019s a special system, as is the collective conviction that it actually works. Along with the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands was one of the highest-ranking countries in the world. We were all convinced that we\u2019d improve our lot in life if only we did our best. By the way, it should be noted that that\u2019s not something that happened overnight. It was our government\u2019s policy for the past fifty years. Only, our society has begun losing that special achievement in the last ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did that happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Education Inspectorate first found that things were heading in the wrong direction in 2016. For instance, they found a link between the secondary school recommendations with which primary school pupils were issued and their parents\u2019 level of education. Children of poorly educated parents were relatively often issued with a recommendation to attend a preparatory secondary vocational college, whereas children of highly educated parents were relatively often issued with a recommendation to attend senior general secondary education (whose graduates are allowed to study at a university of applied sciences afterwards \u2013 ed.), even though they had obtained the same scores on their CITOs (a standardised test taken by primary school pupils to determine what kind of secondary school they should attend \u2013 ed.). In addition to that, Dutch pupils have their school path chosen for them at a relatively young age. The differences between children are growing more prominent at moments of transition \u2013 for instance when they switch from primary school to secondary school. We have always selected our pupils for ability-appropriate secondary schools at a young age, but we used to allow them to take different routes to a good school-leaving certificate. Pupils who started out at the lowly MAVO level could eventually make their way to a university. This has become considerably harder in recent years. But another, more important cause \u2013 which isn\u2019t discussed often enough \u2013 is the growing difference in quality between different schools. Your child\u2019s future largely depends on which school he or she attends \u2013 this one or the other one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Now that the country is more secular, it is segregated along socio-economic lines\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Why have these inter-school differences grown more prominent?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBack when the Netherlands was segregated along religious lines, poor people and rich people, as well as highly educated people and poorly educated people, lived side by side. If you hailed from a protestant family, you attended a protestant school, regardless of whether your father owned a huge shipbuilding company or was a lowly ship builder. Now that the country is more secular, it is segregated along socio-economic lines. Highly educated parents all know exactly which schools to send their children to \u2013 the best schools around. And generally speaking, these highly educated parents will also have more social, cultural and economic capital, meaning their kids\u2019 schools will, too. If their kids need tutoring, they can hire a tutor through their network, just like that. They have no difficulty organising a trip to Florida or Rome, because they have more disposable income. And on top of that, such schools attract higher-quality teachers, because all teachers wish to work in an inspiring environment, with keen pupils and parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Amsterdam city centre you\u2019ll find schools where eighty percent of the pupils\u2019 parents are university graduates. Whereas in the Bijlmer (a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Amsterdam \u2013 ed.) or in Rotterdam-Zuid, you\u2019ll see the exact opposite, because poorly educated parents tend to select the school that is closest to their home. Sociologists of education call this the \u2018Matthew effect\u2019. The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a good thing. What kind of consequences will this trend have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe main question to be answered is what happens when large groups of adolescents no longer believe that the education system will afford them the same opportunities it affords others. You can see one of the results in France, in the banlieues<\/em>: resentment, frustration, dissatisfaction. Adolescents there seek upward social mobility through alternative careers. The great examples of this are people who are successful in sports, dance or art. The not-so-great examples are the informal economy and crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So crime is a direct consequence of an education system that promotes inequality?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIndirectly, it is. But it\u2019s not about inequality per se. There will always be differences between people and between groups of people. In a way, I find that less interesting. What I do find interesting is the inequality of opportunity. Let\u2019s take two pupils who have the same cognitive ability, but come from different backgrounds. What kind of opportunities can we offer them? As a society, we have reached a T-junction of sorts. It\u2019s going to be an exciting time.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dutch schools reopened earlier this month, a relatively high percentage of pupils from poor families turned out to be absent. Moreover, the Education Inspectorate found that online teaching didn\u2019t work all that well in some places. Are you even more concerned now than you already were?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are fussing about children having supposedly fallen behind during the lockdown, but to be quite honest, I think that\u2019s the lesser evil. Children are tough and resilient enough to catch up again, possibly by means of a summer school or some other programme. The underlying question is a lot more relevant: why do these pupils lag behind their peers in the first place? We\u2019ve now established great programmes in which children from certain neighbourhoods are given laptops, allowing them to take online classes. That\u2019s great, but it\u2019s not going to solve the problem. Such children live in sixty-square-metre apartments in Rotterdam-Zuid with four brothers or sisters. There isn\u2019t much money to go around, they aren\u2019t encouraged to read at home and their parents aren\u2019t used to supervising their kids\u2019 schooling, or to showing some appreciation whenever the kids do something well. In a society that offers all pupils the same opportunities, such children should be attending the very best school in the city. But the city\u2019s best school is likely to be located in a neighbourhood such as Kralingen or Hillegersberg, where most children are fortunate enough to come from a privileged background anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the axis along which this inequality in the education system turns? Are we talking about black schools versus white schools?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a multi-faceted issue. Working-class neighbourhoods in the big cities tend to be on the wrong side of the average, and that\u2019s where we tend to find more families from a migrant background. But take Mayor Aboutaleb\u2019s children, for instance \u2013 they are very successful academically. There are elites in every group. I think the debate on ethnicity may be a smoke screen created to get us to discuss the underlying structures. Here in Rotterdam, we have people from 206 registered countries of origin. A report on the impact of the coronavirus crisis recently published by my colleague and mentor Godfried Engbersen shows that the degree of loss of income is largely determined by one\u2019s level of education. Fifty-two percent of poorly educated people are currently experiencing a loss of income, versus 21 percent of highly educated people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Creating an equality of opportunity means investing more in some schools than in others \u2013 in other words, actually differentiating between schools\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

How do we address this increasing inequality of opportunity in the education system?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, we need to be aware of the aforementioned Matthew effect. Many municipal governments aren\u2019t even acknowledging this. They keep up the pretence that all schools in their city are equally good, which simply isn\u2019t the case. But even if it were the case, that wouldn\u2019t mean that everyone has the same opportunities. Creating an equality of opportunity means investing more in some schools than in others \u2013 in other words, actually differentiating between schools. If 80 percent of your pupils come from homes where there are no books, schools must do something to promote reading. If you know that your pupils\u2019 parents or neighbours don\u2019t have enough time to supervise their kids, you must focus more on life skills. In Amsterdam we now have a municipal government that doesn\u2019t operate from the theoretical premise that each school should be the same, but rather acknowledges the actual situation on the ground, which is that the Education Inspectorate has found that different schools have different needs, and that they therefore need different types of funding. It\u2019s quite the breakthrough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shouldn\u2019t schools be given more funding in general, thus allowing them to attract better teachers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI talk to headmasters who\u2019ve never experienced any shortages of teachers. Every time they have a vacancy, it will be filled by an excellent teacher. The problem is that these teachers then leave a void at their previous schools that cannot be filled. People must be given an incentive to start working at a school. In some cases, that incentive will be money, or a higher rank, but I\u2019ve also met students who tell me that they\u2019d rather have their boss pay an additional master degree for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018From an economic point, the healthiest societies are those in which everyone thrives, in which everyone is granted a genuine chance to make the most of their talents\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

How likely do you think your proposal \u2013 investing more in schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods to compensate for disadvantaged pupils\u2019 home situation \u2013 is to be implemented now that neoliberalism is all the rage in the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the question to be answered. Most people tend to focus on their own kids and on making sure they\u2019re in a good place. I\u2019m hopeful, though, because right before the coronavirus outbreak, Minister Slob (the Dutch Minister for Primary and Secondary Education \u2013 ed.) and the mayors of the big cities were about to address this issue. Perhaps it\u2019s good to remind people that this is not some leftist tale. From an economic point, as well, the healthiest societies are those in which everyone thrives, in which everyone is granted a genuine chance to make the most of their talents. In the long run, equality of opportunity will benefit all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Iliass El Hadioui is a sociologist of education affiliated with the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). He is a member of the Research Council, a research project leader at Amsterdam VU University and a programme manager for De Transformatieve School<\/a>\u2019s professional development programme.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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