7th July, 2010

Dutch Education System: Lack of options

In my first journal I had spoken about Amsterdam being a very touristy city, and that it wasn’t full indicative of Dutch culture and society. Today that complain of mine was completely taken care of. We travelled to probably the oldest city of the Netherlands, Utrecht. After disembarking the train, we walked through the railway station that was interestingly also a mall. On noticing the mall, I was immediately reminded of a typical Dutch stereotype i.e. “a money-minded nation whose greatest pleasure is scraping money out of every transaction” (Vossestein, 2010). Usually, I have noticed that there are very few (if there any at all) boutiques and fashion labels at a railway station. However, the Utrecht railway station felt as though it was completely converted into a mall with multiple restaurants, shops, boutiques, etc. It was as though the city planning commission had this quote in mind while approving the plans for the station. Nevertheless, after a short walk we reached Utrecht University where we met the Dean, a couple of professors, and students. I found our reception at the university very warm, and our hosts in typical Dutch style very honest and direct. The Dean was amazingly critical of the Dutch educational system, and very comprehensively laid out its flaws, and advantages. His openness about his dislike for the system came as sweet shock to me. Until now, I had heard a lot of praise for the Dutch education system. However, after hearing about the relative inflexibility, few options, and working of the system I was not very impressed with it. Firstly, I thought that deciding someone’s future based upon an exam given at age 11 was wrong. I feel that giving an exam at that age provides an inaccurate reading of a student’s capabilities, because the student is too young, and still needs more time for the brain to develop intellectually. Not only that, if one performed poorly at the test, the system’s rigidity would make it nearly impossible to have a brighter future than the one instructed. By not allowing students to freely choose their education, I feel that the Dutch are educating robots rather than humans. I do realize that calling them robots is somewhat extreme. Nevertheless, doing something that your told to do, rather than wanting to do it; I feel is equivalent to functioning like a robot. Additionally, I find this an anomaly in a country with such a liberal society. However, after understanding the complexity of changing the system, I do realize that it is very difficult to change. It’s been an integral part of the society since decades, and bringing about change will take a lot of time and discussion. Nonetheless, I support the Dean in his view that it is a system that has to change of the betterment of future generations, and equal opportunity to immigrant students. Thinking about immigrants, I feel the Dutch might be forced to change the system rather than wanting to. As we have learnt, the immigrants’ students are at a disadvantage to native students due to their little knowledge of Dutch language, history, culture, etc. Therefore, keeping in mind the egalitarian face of the Dutch, the exam should definitely be tested at much elder age. This however, has not happened yet, as the immigrants are still a minority, and the Dutch like to “focus more on the average, and take them higher” (Akker, 2010).

After a generous lunch by our hosts at the university we had the opportunity to get a very interesting tour of the city. We visited the catholic churches that were only accessible by priests, monasteries, houses, quiet lanes, and learnt a lot about the architecture and history of the city. Utrecht seemed like a typical Dutch city. There were many churches, and monasteries that covered a huge area of the city thereby highlighting the importance of religion in the past. Also, the egalitarian society could again be seen by the size and façade of the houses. Interestingly, there was a lot of greenery in the city, and there were beautiful tulips in many places. Tulips are loved by the Dutch, and are a rarity in Amsterdam. Therefore, it was nice to see them decorating Utrecht. We also came across the story of a street wherein the daughter of a priest lived on the street. Her identity to the public was unknown at the time she live as she would be surrounded by four walls. She chose to be in that small square giving advice to other women for 57 years as she felt morally obligated to do so. Her father was a priest, and hence had committed a sin. This truly impressed me as the woman sacrificed her life for penance of one sin, thereby again highlighting the importance of religion in Dutch lives at that time.

In conclusion, I found Utrecht to be a wonderful city. It was quiet and beautiful, which is stark contrast to Amsterdam. Also, the visit to the university was very enlightening. We learnt a lot about the Dutch education system, and got to witness many Dutch stereotypes in action. However, I learnt something very important about stereotypes/prejudices from the Dean that I find worth quoting. “The brain always looks for similarities. In the attempt to reference different faces, objects, etc, we can tend to ignore the inherent fundamental differences. One should be aware of this. Always doubt the prejudices.” I think this is something I’m going to try to apply from today onwards, and hopefully learn more about the Dutch.