Education
Since schools have been newly funded, young people’s performance has been declining
Not all schools are making use of the flexibility provided by the new financing model, but the goals are being achieved overall. This is shown by an interim report on the so-called re-resourcing of Aargau’s primary schools. However, it is also noted that the performance of the students has declined over the same period.
Four years ago, a new era in funding began in Aargau education. Since then, schools have been provided with all the funds they need. How they then use these is up to them. The aim is to give schools more scope for action, to give them incentives to use their money economically and to reduce administrative costs.
Education director Alex Hürzeler visits a high school class. The study shows that the so-called new resource allocation has no influence on the transfer rates.
Image: Sandra Ardizzone
With the introduction of this new resource allocation in the 2020/21 school year, the government council commissioned an external research institute to carry out monitoring. It will observe the implementation of the project over the first five years and has now written a first interim report. The conclusion after three years: the goals of the new resource allocation of the primary school have largely been achieved, as the Department of Education, Culture and Sport wrote in a statement on Thursday.
Schools use open space differently
According to the report, resource management has significantly increased the scope for action for a large majority of schools. It also helps with resource planning and creates incentives for targeted use of resources. A majority of the school principals surveyed see other positive effects, for example in terms of the flexibility and transparency of the use of resources or the freedom for pedagogical innovations, writes the BKS. “The fact that schools are using the scope for action is evident in many ways, for example in the change in department sizes, the adjustment of the composition of teaching staff or in what the schools base their guidelines on the use of resources on.”
It is less clear, however, whether the administrative workload has decreased. It is true that the workload has generally decreased because there is no longer a need to apply for resources for individual students. However, school management described the process of obtaining hardship resources as time-consuming.
The school principals had already made this clear before the interim report was published, and access to hardship resources for children and young people with special educational needs was made easier. The process is currently being redesigned, writes the Department of Education.
Results of the checks became worse
The effects of new resources on the students and their educational success were also examined. There were no changes in the transfer rates. After primary school, 23 percent of students go to secondary school, 34 percent attend a secondary school and 40 percent attend a district school. These values have remained the same over the school years.
However, the study authors have identified changes in the performance assessments, the checks. There, the students’ success has tended to decline since the new resource allocation was introduced. The results in mathematics are slightly better than in German. However, the study cannot confirm whether this is an effect of the new resource allocation, the report states. It simply shows that the results have become worse since the introduction, but not what the cause of this is.
The interim report did not reveal any unexpected results, writes the Department of Education. Dealing with resource management is a learning process for communities and schools. Some are cautious in using their new creative space, while others are developing further through it. The BKS believes that this potential could be exploited even more. It therefore wants to provide better guidance and support to school management.
