The year is 2028, new elections are upcoming. An excellent moment to talk to our departing Minister of Education, Culture and Science about the tangible results of the policy that has been implemented and our status of education and knowledge!
"Minister Bruins, can you tell us why you wanted to become Minister of Education, Culture and Science four years ago?"
"Sorry, I have to finish this email first. **Minister Bruins reads the last sentence aloud: “"However. We. Lack. The. Knowledge. And. Insight. To. Solve. These. Important. Problems..**. So. I have to write sentences like this more and more often... It actually makes my work almost impossible... But to come back to your question, I certainly can! I think education and science are really cornerstones of society. Or as I said myself at the time: The future stands or falls with how we educate and shape the next generation. Of course, I have also been a researcher in the past, have worked at MIT, and have been the manager of various scientific institutes, so education and science are of paramount importance to me!"
"Yes, it has to be. What do you actually think of the way your plans of the past few years have been implemented?"
"Well, I hear from the cabinet that we have achieved the financial goals after all! What is of course unfortunate is that we missed the battle in many areas, such as AI and education. Such a shame that we have not been able to have properly implement these incredibly important social developments in our education. That we are now really behind in that area. I was recently laughed at by my fellow ministers from Belgium and Germany, who claim that they have now surpassed us in terms of quality of education. That's outrageous!"
"But Mr. Bruins, you know that this is a direct result of the cuts in higher education, don't you? That teachers hardly had time to delve into how we could innovate education due to the budget cuts? That the workload is so high that we have long been happy that we could just give our lectures and that innovating our education has become increasingly difficult while it is so desperately needed?
"Yes, no, I understand that. **Minister Bruins has to pick up the phone**. "aha ok, yes, I'll see you at home" Sorry, my son's teacher -he used to study German but yes, unfortunately that's no longer possible - turns out to have a burnout and they don't have a replacement, very annoying. We really need to appoint more teachers in the Netherlands, don't we?"
"We certainly have to. What do you actually think of the recent report that the Netherlands has fallen again on the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS)? For the third year in a row"
"That is certainly worrying. So disappointing that we were not able to hold on to that position. We know, of course, that creativity is the result of diversity, of bringing together people from different backgrounds in both education and research. To make that happen, we kept the doors ope... No wait, I don't mean it that way. Again. To make that happen, we have put a lot of money into making this possib... Hey, no, that’s not it too. **Minister Bruins leafs through his papers and mumbles "what did we agree with Geert about this again... Oh yes!" ** Scientists should have just worked harder from their ivory towers. So. ”
“I have one last question, Mr. Bruins. Suppose you were allowed to travel back in time four years, what would you have done differently?”
"You know, I should have repeated one sentence more often. Have to shout from the rooftops. Had to hang above my bed. Namely: THE FUTURE STANDS OR FALLS WITH HOW WE EDUCATE AND SHAPE THE NEXT GENERATION. I should have had a long-term vision, and not followed the short-term vision of my colleagues in the cabinet. By the way, I suddenly realise that if my son doesn't pass that course, he will have to pay a long-term student fine. That too!
