14 percent of preschoolers need extra language support, Minister Weyts: ‘Thinking about interventions on growth package as parents shirk responsibility’

28 comments

  2. For the second time, the so-called Language Screenings were held. In these, preschool children in the third kindergarten class are tested on their knowledge of Dutch: is it sufficient to successfully move on to the first grade? From the so-called KOALA tests, the Department of Education took a sample of nearly 12,000 children in 386 kindergartens across Flanders.

    86 percent of the preschoolers scored sufficiently well, a result almost the same as last year. But 14 percent scored insufficiently so: 10 percent still need additional language support, and 4 percent intensive guidance to successfully enter the first year of school.

    “There are big differences between schools, though,” said Ben Weyts. “Schools with many students who do not speak Dutch at home see an average of 25 percent of their kindergarteners score inadequate.”
    Large cities such as Antwerp and Ghent do not score well, as do the Brussels Capital Region and the Vlaamse Rand around Brussels. In Antwerp, the number of children in need of extra support actually rises to 29 percent. In Ghent it is 23 percent, in Brussels 25 percent and in the Vlaamse Rand 18 percent.

    How will the minister intervene?

    Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) wants to eliminate the gap as soon as possible. “I don’t want children still starting in the first year of school with insufficient knowledge of Dutch. Otherwise they won’t have equal opportunities at all. Moreover, it weighs on the educational quality of all children in the classroom if there are too many who have insufficient command of Dutch.”

    The minister looks to the parents. They must take up their responsibility, he believes, just because especially preschoolers who do not speak Dutch at home or speak it insufficiently, score inadequately: “Speaking Dutch should not stop for a child at the school gate at three-thirty.”

    The minister wants to put more effort into parental involvement, and, if necessary, wants to hold a stick to it. “On the one hand, we can try to encourage parents, but in addition to the positive measures, we must also consider repressive measures. We need to think about ways to intervene when parents are manifestly shirking parental responsibility, for example about intervening in the growth package or in government premiums.”

    Political journalist Ivan De Vadder: “With this proposal, Weyts can polish his record again after controversy over ‘drunkenness’ in Flemish Parliament”

    A remarkable proposal from the Minister of Education, and one that, according to political journalist Ivan De Vadder, remarkably comes right after the controversy Weyts found himself in. “Weyts allegedly took part in a debate in the Flemish Parliament in mid-December in a drunken state. The minister strenuously denies it, but at his party’s New Year’s reception last weekend, “the gossip” was eagerly shared, forcing the minister into an open denial in some newspapers. With this proposal, the Minister of Education, especially among his own supporters, can once again polish his reputation.”

    Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

    Reaction of several people working in education: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/01/17/reactie-op-voorstel-weyts/

    —–

    Correct thinking in terms of issue (language is important), but oh boy, what a proposal.

  3. >On the one hand, we can try to encourage parents, but in addition to the positive measures, we must also consider repressive measures.

    wow wow wow wow.

    Is this **motherfucker** seriously casually throwing out that he wants to violate the constitution’s right to choose your own language by penalizing people for the language they choose to speak in their own home?

    What the fuck???

  4. I and my wife are raising our daughter in two languages: Dutch and Spanish. I speak Dutch and my wife Spanish to our daughter. So it’s not entirely the same situation as neither parent speaking Dutch, but…

    They do these tests with 5 y/o, while they are not that young anymore, kids that are raised multilingual can take a bit longer to process languages or at least some need more time, do they take this into account in their tests?

  5. The kid can also be low iq, so parents might be putting all the effort they want with limited result.
    They should not loose allowance over it.

    The most fair option would be to have the kid redo the year until they show sufficient result in the tests. If still failing after a 2nd time, move them to special schools.

  6. Dit is toch gewoon om aandacht van zijn blamage af te leiden. Dit kan nooit in de praktijk verricht worden toch?

  7. This is absolutely disgusting. Fuck NVA en these out of touch politicians. My single mom raised my sister and I by herself after being thrown out by my father, all the while working a full time job. Between raising me and working she barely had time for Dutch classes, barely scraping by financially.

  8. Is it true that there are some “white” schools that refuse some children from foreigner origin, specially Africans, and this results in very disproportionate % of locals / foreigners in some other schools?

    I have heard this often and it is true that when you look at the playground of some schools, the kids are 90% “white”, while in others it is the opposite…

    This can create an excessive “burden” regarding language to schools that do not discrminate, because the more % of foreigners, the harder to teach Dutch with quality.

    To avoid this type of behavior would improve the overall quality of the kids Dutch, specially in primary school.

  9. No worries, in keeping with his track record this idea (along with any other of the great plans he proudly announced) will go nowhere. He’s the king of aankondigingspolitiek.

  10. This is honestly the biggest nonsense I’ve ever read.

    >”Schools with many students who do not speak Dutch at home see an average of 25 percent of their kindergarteners score inadequate.”

    Based on what information is he coming to this conclusion exactly? They surveyed 12k kids, and only 14% didn’t do well. Are all 86% of the kids speaking Dutch at home with their parents? Are all the 14% of the kids who scored bad because of not talking in Dutch at home and not because of some other reasons? What if the 14% of the kids have bad teachers? We do know the quality of teachers is indeed going down as well. How the fuck does an education minister blindly come to such a conclusion? I come from a country where it’s quite common to speak multiple languages at home compared to the language you learn in school and barely anyone has problems learning multiple languages.

    It’s a classic “let’s distract people from the real problem we have in education” tactic.

  11. Today in populist bullshit NVA comes up with to get some of those VB radicals to vote for them.

  13. Als je schrik zou hebben dat de bodem bereikt is is er altijd nog Ben Weyts!

    Om kinderen uit veelal kansarme gezinnen beter te doen presteren op school gaan we snoeien in hun kindergeld!
    Brilliant!

  15. If they want higher educated children they will have adapt. Hold the child back for a year.
    There are way to many kids who get passed on to the next teacher and end up in highschool without a proper grasp of Dutch. And what happens there is that it effects all their courses and so what does the system do bump them down to technical without looking at the root of the issue.
    Children are capable of learning a new language just in school, without that language spoken at home. My siblings and I did it.
    But the children that have even a slightly harder time with it are just passed through the system instead of stopping them to fix it first.

    Keep the kid back for a year and give them a second chance.
    Bit that of course would reflect badly on schools passing numbers and such. So let’s pass the problem to someone else down the line.

  16. Well financed, fully subsidised, and compulsory kleuterschool would solve the imagined problem.

    Fining parents is adding insult to injury and will only work in an ostracising way, not improve inclusion/integration.

  17. >”Het spreken van Nederlands mag voor een kind niet stoppen aan de schoolpoort om half vier.” 

    >De minister wil meer inzetten op ouderlijke betrokkenheid, en wil daar desnoods een stok voor achter de deur houden. “Enerzijds kunnen we de ouders proberen te stimuleren, maar naast de positieve maatregelen moeten we ook oog hebben voor repressieve maatregelen. We moeten nadenken over mogelijkheden om in te grijpen wanneer ouders manifest de ouderlijke verantwoordelijkheid ontlopen, bijvoorbeeld over ingrijpen in het groeipakket of in premies van de overheid.”

    So Weyts wants to fine non-Dutch speakers for not speaking Dutch with their kids? What a joke.

    Time to cut down on the drinking, Ben.

  18. Ik begrijp dat de taal leren ultra belangrijk is, ook naar integratie, maar Weyts zou misschien 2 keer moeten nadenken voor hij spreekt. Taallessen voor immigranten zijn namelijk te betalen. Stel u voor dat je ergens toekomt in een vreemd land waarvan je niks van de taal begrijpt. Je hebt geen rotte frank. Je zoekt werk en met dat beetje sat na het uitpersen over blijft zou je dan nog eens taallessen moeten betalen ook? Fuck dat!

    Weyts zou die lessen Nederlands beter gratis maken. Of nog beter, maak ze gratis en geef mensen dop zo lang ze trouw naar de les komen, zodat er op die ma Ier ook een incentive is om te gaan. Met alle zever waar we geld aan verspillen zou ik hier echter met de glimlach belastingen voor betalen.

  19. wat een geweldig idee meneer weyts, van mij mag je de fles whiskey de volgende keer mee naar binnen pakken zodat we meer van deze geniale eureka momenten kunnen verwachten

  22. This nonsensical and xenophobic attitude from Ben Weyts and his ilk _really_ rubs me the wrong way. As if teaching a child the language of its (often monolingual) relatives is somehow bad for their development, or a sign that the family is “not sufficiently integrated”.

    Learning a language as a heritage speaker while going to school in the locally dominant language is tough enough as-is, and I find it outright insulting that _not_ imposing a “linguistic monoculture” is viewed as shirking one’s parental responsibilities.

    I’m Flemish, my wife is Japanese, and her immediate family in Japan speaks pretty much only Japanese (and a bit of English). Our child isn’t yet old enough to speak, but given that we use Japanese exclusively between ourselves already, we’ve decided to stick with that at home and let the kid learn Dutch from their peers (and my family). Given the overwhelming dominance of Dutch in all other aspects of life over here (and relative lack of contact with their Japanese relatives!), we felt this was the only way to give them a chance to ever have a substantial conversation with the grandparents in Japan. If Ben Weyts thinks that’s irresponsible parenting, then he can fuck right off.

  23. Sounds like Benne ate the carrot and now only has sticks left to use.

    Sigh, if only there was a requirement of competence for ministers.

  24. He was an idiot when he was minister of Mobility and he’s an idiot when he’s minister of Education. Just make him the minister of Media Appearances, it’s the only function fit for the man.

  26. Wow, what an idiot.

    How about actually trying to teach some of those kids Dutch? There’s a few recent immigrants/refugees at my kid’s school (kindergarten/primary) and as far as I understand, they (the school) are very welcoming but make no real effort to teach them the language. They just throw them in there and expect them to pick it up. Thankfully there are some multilingual kids who can help translate…

    Would like to know what Mr Weyts thinks of our kid, but it might break his poor head. We’ve never spoken a word of Dutch to him but his teachers tell us (because we ask every time) that his Dutch is more than fine and he has a “very rich vocabulary.” I’d hate to think how it would have been if we spoke our poor Dutch with him.

  27. Is this not just a reflection of where society is moving to? There are just way more bilingual families than before, it does not take a genius to understand that. Some children may need more time or tutoring especially if they are raised multilingual. That’s normal, less time is put in each language respectively. But i’m pretty sure they are developing additional cognitive skills as well as linguistic capital to that will make it easier to learn other languages as well

  28. Allow me to refine this proposal:

    – child fails a test: 5€ to be reimbursed per % point under 50%
    – child does not show up for school: 15€/day
    – child makes a spelling error: 25€/error
    – child makes a DT-error: 50€/error
    – child does not pledge allegiance to mr Weyts: 75€/occurrence

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