Many sectors desperately need MBO students, and yet MBO is seen as a gateway for HBO and university. Higher is better, or so the sentiment seems. “It is very bad that the practical has received so much less status,” says historian Daniela Hooghiemstra in WNL Opinionmakers on NPO Radio 1.
Hooghiemstra obtained his doctorate from pedagogue Kees Boeke, the educational reformer who founded his own school in 1926. “That discussion was already there. He was visionary about it. He said that we should not regard the work with the hands as less than the work with the head.”
Joany Krijt, chairman of the Executive Board at MBO Utrecht, sees that MBO students feel less valued. “Our students feel that. We do everything we can to make them feel that they are worth it. That craftsmanship is incredibly important.”
‘MBO is the backbone of our society’
Zohair El Yassini, Member of Parliament for the VVD and spokesperson for MBO, agrees. “If all higher educated people in the Netherlands were to go on strike tomorrow, things would go a bit wrong in three months’ time. If MBO students go on strike tomorrow, it will already be a problem today. MBO is the backbone of our society. It is the backbone that keeps the Netherlands afloat.”
El Yassini also sees the less appreciation for practical education among teachers. “When a teacher starts a conversation with a parent, he says: ‘Unfortunately I have bad news, your child has to go to pre-vocational secondary education.’ I fall then fall off my chair. As a teacher you should then say: ‘Congratulations. Your child has an amazing talent and is going to find a place where he or she will show it. Your child is probably going to make something beautiful out of his or her life.’”
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By: Tom Janssen
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