Tech talk

In various media and certainly in this magazine, many authors have pointed to the continuous loss of quality in technical education over the last three decades, aptly illustrated by the drop Dutch technical universities made on the recently published Times Higher Education ranking.

The causes have been identified more than once. The poor quality of arithmetic training in primary school by teachers that themselves are unable to perform a division, is a bad starter. High schools lack sufficient enthusiastic and qualified teachers. And the few ones left are neither supported nor challenged to raise the math, chemistry and physics levels. Universities are focused, measured and financed by the amount of (un)qualified engineers they produce. And let us not forget the overriding antipathy in Dutch society towards a strive for excellence – particularly in technical performance.

But enough with the good news.