Dutch school bans parents from accessing children's grades to reduce stress
Amsterdam: A secondary school in the Netherlands has reportedly barred parents from accessing grades of their children in a bid to reduce academic stress among students.
According to a report in The Guardian, the school has imposed a month-long pause on sharing the results with 95 percent of parents receptive to the proposal and the parents' council insisting on a 10-week suspension.
Students must meet specific grade average to progress to the next class in Netherlands, which can put considerable pressure on them to maintain high academic performance throughout the year.
Stijn Uittenbogaard, an economics teacher at Jordan - Montessori Lyceum Utrecht, found that a widely used app that shared every grade with the parents increased the stress of children. Uittenbogaard studied nearly half of the children at school and found that when parents checked the app regularly, children rated their stress at 2.7 out of five. Those whose parents were not constantly checking reported a level of two.
"This pressure for students to achieve is really a modern thing in my opinion. When I was at school, there was a report four times a year, but otherwise, you could tell your parents when and what you wanted," Uittenbogaard was quoted as saying by the publication.
"Now parents can get a push notification on their telephones: 'Hey, your child has had a new result,' and the child comes home with their parents sitting ready for a conversation. This is appalling," he added.
Following Uittenbogaard's findings, the school rector, Geert Looyschelder, accepted the proposal. Looyschelder believes that the anxiety with grades in the Dutch education system is hindering the development of essential life skills like empathy and flexibility.
"The fact that parents are looking over the students' shoulders only causes stress. In our education system, we always say: 'You have the right to make mistakes. That's how you learn,” he explained.
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Corruption a standout feature of all departments under Congress Govt, says Ex-CM Bommai
Hubballi: Calling Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah a ‘Pay-Double CM’ who leads a government neck-deep in corruption, former CM and BJP MP from Shiggaon, Basavaraja Bommai, has alleged that the revenue from various departments is shared between the ministers and Siddaramaiah.
Rephrasing the ‘Pay CM’ slogan of the Congress against him prior to the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, Bommai hit out at the current Congress government. Speaking to reporters in Hubballi, he stated that the Congress leaders had made allegations of taking commissions against his government without providing evidence. “Currently, however, their government is facing allegations of taking commissions, with people complaining about the Excise Department,” he added.
“The Finance Department is directly under the charge of CM Siddaramaiah, and personnel demand heavy commissions from people applying for licences. I urge the CM to ensure a probe into the amounts demanded as commissions from each applicant in the department,” Bommai said.
When asked to comment on the Congress leaders’ allegations that no development work has been undertaken in the Savanur constituency of Shiggaon, Bommai said the locals, who are experiencing the development work, could be asked about the matter.
“Shiggaon taluk has been provided with a 200-bed hospital and a textile park; Savanur has a new Ayurveda college and an ITI college. In addition, new homes have been provided for more than 12,000 citizens affected by the recent floods, and a well-developed road has been constructed, connecting Shiggaon to Bengaluru,” he listed out, mockingly asking whether the CM had fallen asleep while travelling through Shiggaon, if he had failed to notice such development works.
