participatory governance, the dutch example

Participatory Governance

The Dutch example

Maarten Vollenbroek

[email protected]

Workshop GCES-conference

Brussels, October 17th, 2016

mailto:[email protected]

THE DUTCH SCHOOL SYSTEM

FACTS AND FIGURES

GCES-conference Brussels, October 17th 2016

Primary Education

• Average expenditures per pupil: € 6400

• 1.158.000 pupils

• 135.000 staff

• 7261 schools

• 1138 school boards (1-60 schools)

Secondary Education

• Average expenditures per pupil: € 7800

• 941.000 pupils

• 104.000 staff

• 645 schools

• 344 school boards


Two examples

Size of school boards is highly diverse:

The smallest (‘t Kompas, Den Bommel)

1 school

42 pupils

€350.000 annually

5 teachers

The largest (BOOR, Rotterdam)

78 schools

30.000 pupils

€248.000.000 annually

Over 3000 teachers


Guiding principles:

• The Minister of Education • Schoolboards • Inspectorate of Education Centralised policy implemented by school boards with a high degree of school autonomy. School freedom balanced by strong accountability mechanism

Dilemma: school autonomy national targets


+ Gelijkheid vs. kwaliteit


However,


Yes, we can!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eclbaC3q94k

Well…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzrI15uw92k


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eclbaC3q94k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzrI15uw92k

CASE

EARLY SCHOOL LEAVE


Approach to Early School Leave: Why?

Dropping out of school effects:

- Youth unemployment

- Crime rates (5 times as high for ESL’s)

- Healthcare costs

Overall:

• Annual benefits of tackling ESL are higher than costs (900 vs 700 million Euro)


Tackling ESL is priority for EU

- EU-definition of early school leaving (18-24 years old without a basic qualification)

- Reducing ESL to less than 10% by 2020 is a headline target in the Europe 2020 strategy


15,4% ESL in 2000 8,2% ESL in 2015



0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

EU-28

NL

Sweden

Regional Approach (‘golden triangle’)


Schools

Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

Municipality

Ingredients of working together

• Long-term performance agreements

(between ministry, municipalities and schools)

• Strict percentage targets and performance bonus if met.

• The goal (or: ‘the what’) is clear

• The way to get there (or: ‘the how’) is up to the local cooperation between municipalities, schools and other parties

• Last but not least: listening to eachother’s needs


Getting the numbers right

• Adequate and complete non-attendance and ESL registration

(Data collection and digital absence portal early warning system)

• Detailed information products help schools, regions and the ministry to target resources aimed at reducing ESL

• Better registration, better analysis

• Consistent and reliable comparisons between years


Introduction of the Education Number


VET institution

Secondary school

1-stop shop

(DUO)

Other stakeholders, such as •Juvenile Care Centre of Work & Income Public Prosecutions Service Truancy officer

Min. of Educ., Education Inspectorate

Other

Municipality of residence: School Drop-out Registration and Coordination Centre (RMC) School Attendance officials

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Example of information product / indicators

Accountmanagement

ESL Accountmanagement

• Inspiring and encouraging

• Monitoring

• Sharing the knowledge and good practices

• Linking pin


Why this succes? Not 1 golden tip… Probably the mix does the trick: • Golden Triangle: the regional approach

• Listen to the practical problems and act on them • Getting the numbers right

• Clear targets with a money-bonus if met

• Laws in place (obligation to report truancy; obliged start-qualification) • Accountmanagers

• The right people (sometimes a bit unorthodox)


Other lessons learned

Analysis of succes learns us:

- If only the ESL-coordinator defines the approach, succes is significantly less

- When schools and teams of teachers are involved in the process, succes is significantly higher

Also did we leave it to the regions in 2012 to first make their own analysis of their ESL-situation

Feeling of ownership was high, the quality of the several analysis differentiated


Not everybody happy

Not happy:

The organisations representing the schoolboards

Why?

They were not involved


24 24

Golden Triangle; Regional differences

Providing, analyzing and translating local results to the regions and schools

But local policies or measures are not imposed centrally…

Golden Triangle; Regional differences .. Instead regions and other entities look at their own situation and benchmark across comparable regions / municipalities / schools and act accordingly (making local policies/measures etc.)

25 25

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Getting the figures right; ESL Explorer

http://www.vsvverkenner.nl/english/national-figures

The future

- Strong networks

- Specific information

Dilemma’s:

- Investing in relations combined with conflict of interests

- How representative is your network?

- Information itself guides behaviour (sometimes unintended)


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University education (wo) 4 years

Higher professional education (hbo) 4 years

Upper secondary vocational education (VET) (mbo) 4 levels 1-4 years

Adult education

Pre-university education (vwo) 6 years

General secondary education (havo) 5 years

Pre-vocational education (vmbo) 4 paths 4 years

Primary education

8 years

Overall view of the educational system

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Overall view of the educational system (2)