‘Just compare this essay by one of our students to the essay of a peer from Birmingham.’ A theatre packed full of teachers was listening to the education expert Tim Surma. He was touring Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, with his Thomas More Expertise Centre which supports teachers in providing better lessons and managing their classes more effectively.
I was reprimanded by pedagogical advisors for expecting students to learn a timeline with dates and facts
Twenty-five years ago, Flanders was at the top of the world in terms of education. Our children were the best readers and the best at maths. As a region with little else to offer the world besides great art, beer and chocolate, we were quite proud of our ‘little grey cells’. Today, that same Flemish education system is in deep crisis. Every new Pisa rating is a step backwards. To our shame, we no longer amount to much in the field of education. A recent international report revealed that the level of maths and science among ten-year-olds has declined more in Flanders than anywhere else.
I’ve been teaching history to children in secondary school in Flanders for 20 years and have experienced the decline firsthand. Vocabulary knowledge withered because language lessons had to be ‘functional’ and ‘fun’. That meant, above all, that lessons couldn’t be too difficult. Even now, I find myself explaining words in history lessons that were easily understood 20 years ago. We taught students to be ‘more outspoken’, which only resulted in increasingly impolite children, who shout wild answers during lessons or chat unabashedly.
Students have been required to engage in ‘self-discovery learning’, and teachers expected to act as a ‘coach’. The era of the teacher as a ‘subject expert’ was declared over. I was reprimanded by pedagogical advisors for expecting students to learn a timeline with dates and facts. I was told I could simply hang the timeline on the classroom wall so students could read it. ‘Knowledge is such a dusty word,’ they said. Meanwhile, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students widened. Those from strong social backgrounds manage to muddle through. Poorer students fall even further behind. Lowering the bar didn’t really help anyone.
And so my jaw dropped in that theatre when I saw the difference in quality between the two essays: one by a Flemish student and one by an English student. The English student’s essay was of a quality we thought was no longer possible ‘in our modern times’. It was my ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ moment, where Alec Guinness realises that the entire construction of his model bridge achieved the opposite.
Our new Flemish Minister of Education, Zuhal Demir, seems equally concerned about the future of our education system. The minister is supported in this by Daniel Muijs, a Fleming who was Head of Research at Ofsted in England for several years. Minister Demir is in the United Kingdom this week to look at the English model, which has been praised in our press and by our education experts for its results. ‘Fewer behavioural problems, better results, and more top performers,’ headlined a progressive Flemish newspaper.
About ten years ago, England faced similar problems to our region, but today England ranks among the best-performing European countries in international tests. This turnaround was achieved by focusing more on knowledge and disciplined learning.
England is now an inspiration for Flanders. It would be particularly unfortunate if the current Labour government were to squander a model which has garnered so much admiration. Compromising on quality and discipline inevitably leads to a ‘What have we done?’ moment. Take it from a reluctant expert.
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