The quality of education is a term that is frequently used in public
debates. Understood in the sense of education being "generally okay", or
rather, most frequently, as "not okay". Perhaps there is an overruling
nostalgic view that formerly education was better than today. In
scholarly discourse there are those who maintain that the quality of
education is an illusive term, with varying interpretations in different
settings and by different stakeholders.
In this book the complexity of the concept of education quality is
recognized, but a conceptual framework is presented that makes quality,
despite its complexity, amenable to rational and empirical analysis.
Productivity, equity, effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness of
education systems are seen as key facets of quality. A concrete set of
indicators is presented that makes for the measurement of these quality
facets. In the second part of the book the quality framework is applied
to an analysis of the quality of education in the Netherlands. Common
sense in the Netherlands is dominated by the view that the quality of
education is a course for serious concern. Some recent quality reviews
take the same pessimistic outlook. However, the current overview of
indicators on the Dutch system, seen from an international perspective,
presents a picture that is much more positive. Still there is always
room for improvement, in the case of the Netherlands this should
probably be sought in diminishing the selectivity of the system as a way
to improve participation in higher education.
