Best of Both Worlds

Toespraak | 01-04-2014

Ladies and gentlemen,

According to a wise old saying: true happiness lies where ambition, ability and action coincide.
To give one famous example: the ambition to walk on the moon, the ability to train astronauts and build a rocket, and the act of setting foot on the moon and returning safely to earth.

I believe that most of us live our lives in the hope of making that proverbial moon walk, in a rocket of our own design and a spacesuit of our own making.
Lifelong learning is all about uniting these three elements of ambition, ability and action.
As students at one of the world’s leading universities, you are about to embark on that lifelong quest.
Let me tell you – and I say this as a woman who loves her job – there is always something left to be desired.
But there’s nothing wrong with that. It may even be exactly what we need to stay motivated.
We all need to keep dreaming.
After all, everything we have achieved to date began as a dream.
These dreams of ours are essential; they are the driving force behind our actions.
But unless we are made of the right stuff, unless we have education and skills, those dreams will never become reality; they will remain pipedreams.
Our dreams and aspirations spur us on to become smarter and better.
To organize, to design and to build more effectively than we ever have before.

In the schools of Singapore and at this university, you are working towards these goals every day. At our schools and universities in the Netherlands, we are doing the same.
Our education systems enable us to realize our dreams.
But how do our education systems work?
How do we train the proverbial rocket builders and astronauts of tomorrow?

Let me offer you a brief description of what school is like for Dutch children.
In the Netherlands, children start school at the age of four
and education is compulsory until the age of 18.
When they are twelve years old, most children take a test,
the results of which give a good indication of what kind of secondary education will suit them best. The test is not the only determining factor however; the teachers' advice together with the impression of the parents' advice play a significant role too.

When they leave secondary school, pupils can either find a job or continue their studies at a college or university, provided that they have the right qualifications.
Throughout a child’s school years, there is a strong focus on literacy and numeracy,
especially in primary schools.
We believe it is vital to create a solid foundation and, with that in mind, we have intensified our focus on these two subjects in recent years.  
Our efforts have been successful: When it comes to these basic skills, Dutch education is now performing well above the international average.
This is demonstrated by the reading and mathematics scores achieved by 9 and 10-year-olds and the performance of 15-year-olds in the PISA tests.
Of course, there is room for improvement: between 2003 and 2012, there was a slight decrease in the proportion of top performers.
Reading provided a positive exception to this trend, with a modest increase in top performers.

We are doing well but we can always do better.
In fact, we need to do better: as the complexity of our world increases, so too does the complexity of the challenges we face.
Progress can be likened to a fast computer which is able to build a faster computer, which in turn, builds an even faster computer.
There will always be a need for highly trained personnel to formulate answers to complex issues.
After all, smart solutions and technical ingenuity give us the means to achieve our dreams. 
At the same time, it’s important to remember that we need more than just technically trained personnel.
What we really need is a good mix of skills.
And that calls for a broad approach to learning.

The Netherlands has always been a land of free thinkers and creative minds.
We are not only a nation of traders and people who can tame the destructive force of water, but we are also a nation of artists and inventors.
Our country has risen to prominence thanks to its successful combination of team spirit and can-do pragmatism. You could even call it ‘creative pragmatism’ or ‘practical creativity’.
That is something we can still pride ourselves on today.

Last year, a report by the OECDs Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) revealed that young adults in the Netherlands are among the very best in the world when it comes to problem-solving.
I was delighted to hear your Minister of Education, Heng Swee Keat, talk about the concept of ‘holistic education’ recently.
On this subject he said: ,,Holistic education involves infusing and integrating the learning in different domains, and the development of values and skills in every part of school life, both in and outside of the classroom."
 “This is less about content knowledge” and “more about how to process information.”
He talked about the importance of “discerning truths from untruths, connecting seemingly disparate dots, and creating knowledge even as the context changes.”

In my view, our ideas about what education is – and what it should be – are very much on the same wavelength.
This strengthens my confidence that, by exchanging our knowledge and experiences, you and I will be able to cope well with the challenges of tomorrow.

Meeting these challenges means taking an innovative and creative approach to talent, financing, ideas, and opportunities.  
It requires foresight, adaptability and continuous training.
It calls for an active, alert attitude and the willingness to keep on learning throughout your life.
We are all aware that computers and robots are increasingly taking over administrative and routine jobs.

But current research shows that jobs in the service sector are now also very vulnerable.
Thanks to pattern recognition, big data, and robotics, computers are able to perform ever more complex operations,
often more cheaply and more effectively than humans can.
All this has its consequences.
Nowadays we not only need to connect knowledge and human capital, we also need to make the most of this connection.
The American philosopher Martha Nussbaum calls this “the capabilities approach”.
What are people capable of?
What realistic opportunities do they have?

A nimble economy requires resilient workers and citizens.
Equipping people effectively for the job market therefore means preparing everyone for a lifetime of learning.
It also means encouraging young people to develop into well-rounded human beings.
The mix of skills I talked about earlier is not only needed to help us cope with the demands of work; it also helps us to combine existing knowledge in brand new ways.
And, ultimately, to come up with practical solutions.

I therefore consider cultural education to be every bit as important as technological education.
Good cultural education goes further than enabling children to discover beauty.
It also challenges them to develop a creative, inquisitive attitude.
A flexible and open mind.
And that is just as important as language skills and the ability to make accurate calculations.

Let’s not focus exclusively on the design and construction of technological tools in order to accomplish our dreams.
Let’s not overlook the fact that our societies – our democratic, open societies – also need to be maintained.
There are plenty of countries with the technical know-how to build rockets but how many of them can be characterized as a free and open societies?
That is a question we can all answer for ourselves.

Education is a cornerstone of a democratic state.
And within the realm of education, the humanities serve our democracies particularly well.
Nussbaum argues that democracies need the humanities:
it is even the subtitle of her book Not for Profit.
In that book she writes that dignified, civil societies don’t just drop out of the sky.
They are created when young people are educated and given opportunities to develop.
And they are sustained when people are able to exchange ideas, debate freely and critically question those who govern them.
We need educated people with a solid understanding of the world around them to be able to preserve and improve our way of life.
We need talents in every field so that our societies can retain their dignity.
We need people with the courage to be critical of those above them in the social hierarchy.
I therefore believe that, in addition to focusing on knowledge and skills,
in addition to feeding into the job market and the social order,
in addition to meeting the demands of our age, education should always contribute to creating a younger generation of creative dissenters and constructive critics. People bold enough to state the other side of the argument.

That is why the broad approach to learning I mentioned earlier is so important.
It leads to an education system in which knowledge, skills and personal development are in balance and appreciated in equal measure.
That is what enables people to do their best and to be the best they can be.
That is how we make the most of our societies.

As I see it, learning and skills development go hand-in-hand with the ability to take an independent view and engage in critical reflection.
The ability to combine a practical mindset with ethical standards and moral values.
To look beyond barriers, and sometimes break right through them, in order to see what lies on the other side.

We need education to equip us for the future, skills to channel our imagination, and development to give us creative and competent rebels.
It is the very cornerstone of progress.

Dear friends,

In essence, I don’t think our education systems differ all that much.
Two years ago, your education minister spoke of taking a holistic approach.
Our approach in the Netherlands also reflects this vision.
I am looking forward to getting to know you better and to talking about the differences that do exist.
My aim is to learn from you so that we in the Netherlands can have the best of both worlds in terms of education.
I sincerely hope that we can help you do the same.

But before our dialogue begins, let me leave you with these thoughts:

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous flying machine – the Ornithopter – and the Apollo 11 space mission were separated by around 500 years.
The first man on the moon and the start of construction on the International Space Station were separated by just 30.    
That, my friends, is progress.

In his famous speech on the US space program that would ultimately put men on the moon, President Kennedy said, and I quote:
“The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school.”
This too is progress.

Our happiness lies in the balance between ambition, ability and action.
Our dreams drive us forward.
So, above all, let’s continue to dream.
To dream about the day that we will walk on the moon – metaphorically – or who knows – perhaps even literally?

And let’s embrace this opportunity to share the best of both our worlds, so that we can make the most of our potential and turn our dreams into reality.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.