The project’s objectives are set at three levels: * Insights into inspections in general at the level of the individual inspector, who can refine their inspection skills through job shadowing. * Insights into the inspection of basic skills at the level of the individual inspector, enhancing their knowledge of basic skills and their importance. * Insights into the inspection of basic skills at the organizational level, enabling both the Dutch and Flemish inspectorates to critically reflect on whether their current approach to assessing basic skills is the most effective for achieving results in their education systems.
Both in the Netherlands and Flanders, basic skills are under pressure. Fewer and fewer young people and adults acquire the minimum basic skills needed to successfully complete their education and function independently in society. Many schools in the Netherlands and Flanders appear to struggle with providing every student a targeted learning offer to acquire these skills as quickly as possible. As a result, values such as inclusion and equal educational opportunities are at risk. The Dutch and Flemish inspectorates aim to take on a stimulating role alongside their supervisory function, encouraging schools to implement effective strategies to enhance students’ basic skills. However, they approach this differently: in the Netherlands, there is a separate basic skills standard, while the Flemish inspectorate integrates basic skills into broader inspection focuses. Both inspectorates seek to learn from each other to develop a suitable approach within their own context for reviewing basic skills.