Educational institutions ban grading system

Never again getting a four for an exam or interim examination: that is a fact as of next year. This week, senior secondary vocational education and training, universities of applied sciences and universities decided together to give up the old assessment system for their students starting from the 2032-33 academic year. Bas van den Berg sees it as the cherry on the cake after a period of ten years of educational innovation. ‘When we started our Community of Practice Regenerative Education in 2022, the assessment system was already a thorn in our side. After all, as lecturers who are we to grade our students? In the search for systems to restore the earth, we know as much or as little as they do. The focus of modern education is on discovering and innovating together, not on assessing and testing each other. It's nice that this is now official.’

From learning factories to places of inspiration

Regenerative education has brought about a complete metamorphosis of the educational landscape in the last decade. Van den Berg: ‘It is great to see how small initiatives, sometimes from just one lecturer within a faculty, have grown into complete programmes in which students are given plenty of room. Whereas education used to dictate what made them a good professional, they now discover for themselves what they can contribute to the world, together with others. Educational institutions have not been "learning factories" for a long time. They are places where people come together to develop and share their personalities, talents, creativity and interests. With each other and for the earth. You can't put a grade on that!’

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