Teachers concerned about young children training for tests
Many primary school children train outside school hours for tests, estimated by 60 percent of teachers. The test culture puts young children under pressure, which leads to stress and physical complaints. This is the conclusion of a survey conducted by the Pointer journalistic platform and DUO Education Research & Advice among four hundred teachers of groups 5, 6, 7 and 8.
The questionnaire shows that almost three-quarters of teachers notice that the pressure to score increases in higher classes. From that moment on, the results count towards the school recommendation. More than half of the teachers and masters notice that students start training outside school hours for tests, such as Cito’s.
Pale faces and short fuses
All those preparations for test periods cause stress and physical complaints for students. This is also evident from the figures: 89 percent of teachers see that children are under stress. They mention complaints such as short fuses, pale faces, poor eating and sleeping, crying quickly, stomach ache and nervous behaviour. Children are sometimes afraid of failure and feel pressure from their parents. Teachers also talk about wobbly behavior, headaches, arguments, panic, sick reports and blackouts. Gonneke Stevens, professor of Adolescent Health and Wellbeing at Utrecht University, recognizes this problem. “Among both grade 8 and secondary school students, the percentage who experience a lot of pressure from schoolwork has tripled in the last 20 years.”
Read also: Performance pressure in children: ‘When my child stayed put, I wanted to talk the teacher into it’
Too early selection
Schools are obliged to follow pupils with a pupil tracking system (lvs). Children take an average of nine tests per year. Many teachers value the results of the pupil monitoring system when determining school advice. That creates too much pressure, says test expert Karen Heij. “We attach too much importance to testing and select too early. It shocks me when I see how much pressure it creates for young children and teachers.” If it is up to the Education Council, children will only be selected on level after a three-year broad transition class. Due to ‘complicated circumstances’ in education, Dennis Wiersma, Minister of Education, cannot comply. He does think training for tests is ‘very undesirable’ and he will find out how this can be discouraged.
Would you like to know more about the test culture at primary schools? Watch the episode of Pointer here.
Source: Pointer
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