“Education gets better with smaller classes.” Sounds logical.

“Education gets better with smaller classes.”
(This was the headline of a Dutch newspaper article shown in the image.)

Sounds logical.

But that headline itself explains why we still have school refusers, why motivation keeps dropping, why more young people end up in mental health care — and why the shadow-education market (tutoring and cram schools) keeps growing.

We keep measuring quality in numbers.
21 students = better than 29.

But come on…
I don’t magically become a better teacher with fewer kids in the room.
And we won’t attract new colleagues if they’re asked to do the same as always — just with smaller groups.

Sure, it’s a little more relaxed.
But it hardly raises my quality — or my job satisfaction.
(It’s not just about salary.)

Years ago, I said in an NRC interview:
“There is no teacher shortage. There is a shortage of schools where people want to work.”

Today I’d add:
“…and where learners and parents actually want to go.”

So government (yes, D66 included), if you want to make real change:
Stop talking in numbers.
Start describing what really matters:

👉 Learner motivation (Golden Circle)
→ Cut down the number of learning goals. I want to develop people through passion, not fill an encyclopaedia.

👉 Personal qualities (Self-Determination Theory)
→ Put autonomy, relationships and competence above grades. Growth lives there.

👉 Stretch Zone (Vygotsky)
→ Stop comparing kids to their age group. Help us chart their growth.

👉 The right circumstances
→ Break with the year-group classroom system. It puts some to sleep and drives others into panic.

👉 The right people
→ Smaller classes might give a touch more attention, but they don’t structurally raise my quality.
→ Build structures where teachers, pedagogues and leaders learn together, observe each other, and reflect with learners and parents. In other words: break with the year-group classroom system.

💰 And let’s be honest: we’re not under-spending on young people’s development.
But the money is used reactively, after tests, after diagnoses:
– when a learner is already depressed, “behind”, or at home.
– when a teacher is already burnt out, buried in admin while knowing exactly what’s needed.

The real solution lies in proactive investment: less shadow education, no symbolic fixes like smaller classes, but structural changes that truly transform our schools.

As long as politics stays stuck in class sizes and statistics, they miss the language needed to make education future-proof — for our children and for everyone working in education.

** Find the full article (in Dutch) here