{"id":127755,"date":"2021-06-07T17:14:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T15:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=127755"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:40","slug":"educational-council-on-damage-of-coronavirus-crisis-recovery-alone-is-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/06\/07\/educational-council-on-damage-of-coronavirus-crisis-recovery-alone-is-not-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Educational Council on damage of coronavirus crisis: ‘Recovery alone is not enough’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The eleven page letter<\/a> published by the Education Council is actually intended for the successors to the current, outgoing ministers. The 8.5 billion euros in emergency funding for the educational sector? That\u2019s only the beginning, the letter\u2019s authors suggest.<\/p>\n

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Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven<\/span><\/p>

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Or, as formulated by the Council itself: the acute problems caused by the coronavirus crisis should be viewed \u201cin conjunction with the underlying, structural problems affecting education\u201d. \u201cRecovery alone is not enough\u201d, chairperson Edith Hooge asserts.<\/p>\n

Wellbeing<\/h2>

Of course, the crisis has caused damage to students \u2014 from falling behind in school to a diminished sense of wellbeing. The Council believes that in higher education, health and wellbeing are often bigger problems than setbacks in course work.<\/p>\n

In the words of the letter: \u201cMany have been hit hardest by the substantial loss of their social contacts. The loss of exercising, playing sports, meeting friends, and part-time jobs has had a negative effect on students\u2019 mental wellbeing. This has magnified students\u2019 feelings of loneliness, decreased their motivation, and led to programme setbacks and rising debt payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their most important finding: the 8.5 billion euros is to cover a period of two-and-a-half years, and that\u2019s too short. \u201cThe crisis isn\u2019t over yet. We are still living with measures intended to drive down infection, such as social distancing, quarantine advisories, and restricted school and campus openings. Moreover, there has not been enough time to itemise the setbacks in detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teacher shortage<\/h2>

If you only allow yourself two-and-a-half years to repair the damage, then you are only looking at the short term, \u201cwhile what\u2019s needed is a long-term approach\u201d. Most importantly, the teacher shortage must be addressed, as must the decline in reading skills.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Education is actually aware of this, an article in NRC Handelsblad revealed<\/a> this week. The Ministry wanted more time to rectify the shortage of teachers. From documents, email exchanges and WhatsApp messages<\/a> that the newspaper obtained, it seems the Ministry had wanted to take until the year 2028 for recovery. Under pressure from the Ministry of Finance (\u201cWe believe that a period of this length cannot really be the ambition\u201d), the term was reduced to 2.5 years.<\/p>\n

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education\u2019s original plan did not communicate enough urgency and creativity. The Education Ministry should take more control and not be so ready to listen to complaints from the educational sector. Thus, for example, you could extend the school year by sixteen weeks and have the new school year start after the Christmas holidays, which would allow all students to catch up on missed schoolwork.<\/p>\n

Not feasible<\/h2>

But this did not seem feasible to the officials at the Ministry of Education. They did try to impress upon schools that they should make use of scientifically proven effective interventions, like summer school and tutoring.<\/p>\n

This is also highly promoted by the Education Council \u2014 and not just for the crisis period. The government should invest in teachers\u2019 knowledge, is one of their recommendations. \u201cIt\u2019s important that research findings are used and that schools learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will politicians listen to these recommendations? We\u2019ll only know when the next government releases its coalition agreement, and we might have to wait a while before that is ready. Negotiations seem to have hit an absolute roadblock.<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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