Students with the same school performance do not always receive the same school advice. For example, recommendations are often higher for students from more advantaged backgrounds. Teachers also sometimes give different advices to the same student. With the support of donors to the AUF, Sara Geven, sociologist at the UvA, is developing a procedure for fair and consistent school advice together with the boards of seventy Amsterdam primary schools.  

“School advice has a huge impact on a child's life,” says research coordinator Niels de Ruig of STAIJ, the umbrella organization for twenty primary schools in East Amsterdam. 'Anyone who receives a HAVO/VWO advice currently still has many more opportunities for better-paid work with more status, their own home and good health. But a substantiated protocol for fair school advice does not yet exist.' 
 

Solution for many more schools in The Netherlands 

Last year, De Ruig, together with Geven, took the first steps towards a school advice procedure. This year they are streamlining the procedure with the results of an extensive survey among teachers and students of the primary schools involved. The AUF supports the research with a grant of more than 20,000 euros from the proceeds of the fundraising campaign. The research should make clear which factors influence school advice. The participating boards and schools will implement the streamlined procedure in the coming school year. They monitor whether the procedure works or needs to be further improved. 'The inspectorate requires that schools can properly substantiate their school advice. If the new advice procedure works, it will be a solution for many more schools in The Netherlands.'