A Netherlands secondary school has barred parents from accessing the grades of their children in an attempt to reduce stress on the pupils to perform, according to a report in The Guardian. The school has imposed a month-long pause on sharing the results with 95 per cent of parents receptive to the proposal and the parents' council insisting on a 10-week suspension. Currently, students need a certain grade average to progress to the next class in the Netherlands which puts them under pressure to constantly perform at the highest academic level.
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 discovered 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 said.
"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.
'No life skills development'
After his research, Uittenbogaard presented the findings to rector, Geert Looyschelder, who accepted the proposal. Looyschelder stated that anxiety over grades in the Dutch school system was hindering the development of life skills such as empathy and flexibility among the children.
"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.'"
Lobke Vlaming, director of a national parents' association revealed that the reaction to the pilot had been positive so far.
"For some time we have been hearing about parental concerns about pressure to perform and also about children's privacy. Perhaps they have the right not to have everything shared about them with everyone," she said.
Vlaming added that conversation between the parents and school, however, should not cease as they need to know when things aren't going well with their wards.
