Tuesday May 19, 2015 Dutch Education System

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Jaap and I went into his office today and met with Martijn and Mare. Martijn is the management of information and he showed us a PeopleSoft program called QlikView, which was an incredibly detailed and rich database of all students at Noorderpoort schools.

Because students are partly not out of compulsory education yet, they sign a contract as to what course they are going to take. There is a high stakes test that determines their mental capacity (not quite an IQ test) and also there is a lot of feedback from the student's teachers on the probable success of a student in a particular course of study. This happens at 12 years old. Depending on the test, academic success so far, teacher feedback, and student desire, the student will sign a contract to go to 4, 5, or 6 year secondary education. The 4 year is pre-vocational education, the 5 year can be pre-vocational education or on to associate's degree or bachelor's, and the 6 year s the pre-associate's/bachelor's, but probably more focused on straighter shot right into the university system.

Because there is a contract, the student is required to attend 5 days a week (one day might be doing a paid or unpaid internship, depending on the year/level they are in school), the teacher's must take attendance and record it regularly. The student has a about six acceptable reasons to not be at school. When a student doesn't attend and drops out, the reason is recorded too. Every night the administration of Noorderpoort connects with the government who funds the student's education. Therefore, if the student officially drops out, within 24 hours, Noorderpoort is no longer receiving payment for that student.

Martijn with his QlikView can drill down by school, program, instructor, student what is going on--on a daily basis. The administration or instructional team of the program can also see this information and intervene sooner to help the student with the issue he/she might be having which is causing trouble with attending school.

Then Jaap and I met with Mara, who is the director of HR. We had a great conversation comparing and contrasting our systems. We have some greater freedom in dealing with employee issues. One of the biggest contrasts is of course their staff have health insurance from the government and we do not. So when they want to hire someone part-time, there is no consideration of the relative cost for benefits--just what you need that person to do.

Jaap and I were comparing an US request to have a 10 month employee work in the summer (out of contract) versus they have 70%-employees who they have requests to work an additional 10% for a month. But when they start to work and additional 10% month after month, it can become difficult to determine what the status of the person is.

In the afternoon, I walked to the city center to purchase some post cards and stamps. I was quite proud of myself--finding my way there and back. (The back was a bit more challenging--as I did not have the Martini Tower (St. Martin) to use as a visual cue, but I made it!)

Here is some neat artwork.

 This almost looks like a painting, but it is a common street view of houses.

 Bikes outside the University of Groningen.

 Hydraulic car stoppers--you have the right authorization, they will retract into the ground so your car can pass.

 You must watch continually and have courage, both as a pedestrian and bicyclist. Each must yield when they do not have the right away.

 For Katie--pretty close! (And it is a wine shop.)

 This is the administration building. Noorderpoort went from 100 buildings for the whole system to 22. This is where Jaap's office is.

 This is the dumpster! Residents have a card that identifies them from the neighborhood, they swipe the card, the door swings down, you put your trash in, close the door and the bag falls into the container under the street. Then when it is time to empty, the truck uses the hole on the top to hook onto and pulls the whole container out of the ground and collects the bags. There are recycling containers too and deposits on glass and some plastic. The streets are very clean and not much garbage blowing around. On Friday, I was at a street corner (very busy) and a girl on her bike about 18 years old dropped her whole container of French fries. She and her friend stopped and picked them all up--even though it was a busy bus, bike, and pedestrian thoroughfare.

 The half-circle made out of stones is the merging of the road to a busier road. Bikes have the right of way, but cars can cross this too. The red pavement from top center to lower right is the bike lane. On this one, it would be one way in the direction of traffic. Motorized bikes and motorcycles can act as bikes or cars (even on the bike paths)

 There is a bus stop near here and this is in the bike path, so kind of a speed bump or attention getter for the bicyclists and the pedestrians, I believe.

 The white stripes here mean the pedestrian has the right of way. Bikes must yield on the path and cars must yield in the street. (There is a parking area between the two, that is why there is distance between the bike ones and the street ones.)

 This is a bike with seating for about four children. The cart is in front and the straps are like seatbelts. Have seen three on a bike as the most so far.

 This is water tower near Jaap's condo.