Patricia about the Cito test: ‘Do we really have to test children that often?’

Question: is it normal that almost every child has to go to tutoring these days? With us, the tutoring bodies pop out of the ground like magic mushrooms. Well what do you want with all that panting of those plus classes in those children’s necks. Then it quickly goes downhill with the self-confidence of both the children and parents…

Nowadays they already get their first Cito test in group 3. Come on love Leute: some children are not even sensuous yet!

Sunshine or a ‘G’ for good

‘Don’t worry, we are of course not giving figures yet!’, I hear many a pedagogue say. But you know? I think, in fact, I know that a child knows very well that he is being graded somewhere. Whether it’s a sun or a ‘G’ for Good. They do understand all those ranks and positions.

Look, are you an average child or are you a bit lucky and you can read and calculate easily, then there is not much to worry about. But do your talents lie elsewhere? Then in 2022 you are just the asshole with an ‘L’. Because creativity, technical insight or, for example, sporting talent are completely lacking in this form of assessment.

‘Different’

Not to mention the kids with ADHD or ADD or anything else on that immense spectrum. They already have a hard time, because they are ‘different’.

Well, I have a wake up call for the Dutch education system: every child is different. And I also know that teachers cannot offer 27 different ways of education for 27 different children. But do we really have to test them so early and so often?

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Snapshots

Cito results are bare figures. They are snapshots without any knowledge of a child’s personal situation. And figures also show that 40 percent do not even reach their right level after primary school. woohoo!

Cito trainings?!

We also had a very small pandemic. And as much as I have channeled my inner teacher, the children have missed an awful lot of precious teaching hours. But they ‘just’ get a Cito test. And it will go down in the books forever. bam. And do you know what they do with us? Cito trainings. Tutoring to make the Citos better. Aren’t we all walking in circles together?

telling time

My youngest is fine. She’s the kind of kid who fits right into the system when it comes to test results. What we recently found out is that she is less good at telling the time. In my opinion, for the simple reason that we have never really paid attention to it at home. It hadn’t occurred to me for a while between all that working from home, swimming and sifting through lice. ‘Maybe she needs tutoring’, was the motto of my mom-friends in the schoolyard.

†seriously, for telling time?’ Hopefully they will learn that on TikTok…

Patricia van Liemt is a radio host, writer and mother of 2 lab babies Maria (11) and Phaedra (8). She worked at Qmusic and 100% NL, among others. You can now hear her successful podcast series Let’s Talk About Sex(e) on GoodLIFE Radio. Her husband lives in Switzerland during the week, when she tries to combine kids, work and girls nights. In her debut novel ‘De Lab Baby’ she talks about her personal experiences with IVF.

More columns from Patricia? Every Friday there is a new column on KekMama.nl. Read the previous columns here.