Trend research for the Education Council

The Education Council (Onderwijsraad) is the statutory advisory body to the government and parliament in the field of education. The council advises, both when asked and unprompted, on the broad lines of policy and legislation. Once every five years the council publishes The State of Educational Netherlands, which reviews how the Dutch education system stands. For the 2019 edition, Jester was asked to map the most important trends and developments reaching the education system.

Based on desk research and interviews with experts from inside and outside education, Jester drew up a trend complex. Technology philosopher Martijntje Smits explained the influence of technology on society and therefore on education. Teacher and author Jelmer Evers offered new insights on the role of the teacher and the commercialisation of education. Experts from ManpowerGroup and Randstad stressed the importance of lifelong learning in the light of all developments on the labour market. Finally, Professor Hopmann of the University of Vienna spoke about the importance of Bildung and the negative effects of an overly strong emphasis on measurable learning results.

The trend complex consists of 17 trends, for which we then determined the mutual influence and dependencies. On the basis of these outcomes we identify the main drivers of change. The five most important trends are: the increasing influence of technological developments, internationalisation, the changing position of learning in the life course, the school as a business, and the rise of personalised learning.

An important conclusion in The State of Educational Netherlands is that differentiation in the education system has gone too far. Trends such as "the school as a business", "the rise of personalised learning" and "the changing position of learning in the life course" are directly related to this.