Chairman of teachers union Aob Walter Dresscher doesn’t think teachers should be paid bonuses according to their results. The same system was tried in the United States and lead to a number of financial scandals. Why not invest in good training instead, Dresscher asks in the Volkskrant.

Education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt wants the quality of teaching to improve and has decided to introduce performance pay. The idea originated in the United States where the No child stays behind programme rewards – or penalises- schools according to exam results. The goals the schools have to achieve are set by the authorities at the beginning of the school year. Many schools introduced performance pay for teachers at the same time.
Fraud
The system seemed to be working until this summer when allegations of cheating caused by the pressures of performance pay were made against schools in 22 states. The local schools inspector was quoted in the New York Times as saying that he understood why teachers had resorted to fraud.
‘If schools are graded according to results then teachers will strive to make pupils do better, even if that means using unacceptable means’, he said. The controversy has sparked a debate between those who want to abolish performance pay and bonuses and those who want more control.
Exam culture
In spite of these experiences the Dutch government has decided to go ahead and link exam results to teachers’ pay. Some €250m bonus money was earmarked for teachers and school teams in the government accord by a cabinet that still believes in the effects of reward and punishment.
The Netherlands does not have an excessive exam culture. The test at the end of the primary school education and the final secondary school exams are the two main moments when student progress is evaluated. These results will tell schools how they are doing just as well. It would simply be wrong to take exam results or teachers’ performance as a criterion for remuneration in the expectation that students will do better.
Easy route
It will almost inevitably lead to fraud and cheating, as the InHolland affair attests. Students were helped to a diploma via an easy route in order to boost the schools’ success rate and so line its pockets. Successful student pay, drop-outs don’t.
Those millions would be far better spent on keeping in work the 9000 teachers who are about to lose their jobs as a result of the government squeeze on special education.
Scientists, education experts and economists all agree that the quality of education will benefit from investment in teacher training colleges and follow up training courses for teachers. Let’s use the money for that instead of pouring it down the drain.
This is an unofficial translation