Why cutting back on languages even more at this point is particularly unfortunate
The teacher shortage remains as severe as ever. But who will train the teachers of the future? The outlook in this area is not particularly bright, especially for modern foreign languages, which is particularly unfortunate, according to French language teacher Thom Westveer.
New curricula for modern foreign languages are finally being introduced in secondary schools, with more attention to culture and no longer a blind focus on reading skills alone. And that new curriculum could ultimately spark renewed interest in language studies. Will this ray of hope for language programmes now die a slow death due to budget cuts? As long as the financing of education is determined by profit margins, I fear that this will indeed happen.
While the government’s policy initially seemed to be aimed primarily at international students and large English-language programmes, it is precisely the smaller programmes, which mainly attract Dutch students, that are being hit. And all this under the guise of efficiency. Fewer than a certain number of students in your lecture hall? Then you are not profitable and your subject had better be abolished. It seems obvious... But it is a big misconception that education can be profitable. That may be possible for large, English-language programmes that attract many international students, precisely because they regularly pay the much higher institutional tuition fees. Education should not be dependent on the whims of shareholders and top executives who are only interested in profit.
Major students
Even a well-filled lecture hall is no guarantee that your programme will survive. From Utrecht, we heard stories of programmes that, despite the fact that their individual courses often attracted more than enough elective students, now have to close because the programme as a whole does not attract enough major students. Our French language and culture programme at the UvA is in a similar situation, as are many other language programmes. There is considerable interest among students from all kinds of disciplines in studying French, but these students do not count towards the survival of our programme. The only thing that matters is the degree completion rate: how many students obtain their degree within a reasonable period of time.
Degree completion rate
While minor and elective students do provide extra students in the lectures and sometimes even decide to continue on to the major programme, minor courses, for example, do not count and no extra groups may be created, even if there is interest. Sometimes interested students enrol as major students to be sure of a place in the lectures, but then drop out after the first year. This is also not conducive to our graduation rate. In addition, students with disabilities are often referred to our smaller study programmes because we have more room for personal guidance. However, these students often take longer to complete their studies, which is entirely justified and understandable, and this further reduces the graduation rate.
Stubborn
In addition, students already have to juggle many things in order to survive. They have to travel long distances or work long hours alongside their studies, while ensuring that they complete their studies on time. As lecturers, we are already noticing the consequences of this and are constantly faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, we have to maintain the quality of our programmes, but on the other hand, we also have to consider the efficiency of our programmes and therefore the number of students who complete their studies on time, because otherwise there will be financial consequences. So we keep adapting our education and cutting courses, with consequences for quality – it literally becomes learning French the French way.
If policymakers are so keen to promote efficiency and effective education – and therefore also want to prevent students from falling behind – then they should ensure that the range of courses on offer is maintained. The Education Council has already pointed this out: don't stubbornly focus on what the labour market needs right now – by the time pupils and students are ready to enter the labour market, the situation will have changed again – but ensure that freedom of choice is maintained. Moreover, you are much more likely to stick with a course that suits your interests and your level than a choice made under pressure from politicians or parents.
Science subjects
Foreign language education also deserves a central place in this, without the persistent prejudices that language education is a fun subject or the constant glorification of science subjects. And even those science subjects ultimately cannot do without language and modern foreign languages.
What would be left without language? In a fairly recent French book (2022) entitled Les mots immigrés (Immigrant words), Erik Orsenna – writer and member of the famous Académie française – and Bernard Cerquiglini – linguist, also known from the series Bonjour professeur on TV5Monde, where he explains the French language – describe what would happen if all words were to disappear from the French language. What would happen, for example, if all French words that originate from other languages – not just English loan words, but also words from Latin or Arabic, for example – went on strike one day in response to discriminatory statements by far-right politicians?
All those mots immigrés would no longer be usable. The result: no one would be able to say anything meaningful anymore, because the only word left would be caillou (pebble). That word seems to be the only one left from the original inhabitants, who lived in what is now France even before the arrival of the Gauls (the people of Asterix and Obelix, indeed). There is not much you can do with that. Society comes to a standstill and chaos breaks out. No language, no communication, no education, no society. And for Dutch, the situation would not be much different in such a case.
Thom Westveer is a university lecturer in French linguistics.
