Inspiration
“I grew up in a large family with an Indian father, in a multicultural working-class neighborhood. At our home, the door was always open to everyone. People with different cultural and social backgrounds walked in and out all day.
My motivation to become a teacher comes from my high school days. At the time I felt unseen and certainly not recognized. In order to make a difference for the students after me, I started the teacher training. I am convinced that if people are seen at the right times, they can take great steps in their development. Recognition of qualities has also become an important core value of TopTaal.
During the internships of the Dutch teacher training course I came into contact with refugee children and children of guest workers, who still had to get to know the language and culture. That experience left such a big impression on me that, in addition to my work as an NT2 teacher, I started attending the NT2 expert training at Tilburg University.
The pedagogical side of teaching has always really attracted me. And because I can identify well with other cultures because of my upbringing and background, the establishment of TopTaal was a logical next step. ”
Everything we do at TopTaal comes from our passion: we want to ensure that everyone in the Netherlands has a command of Dutch culture and language in such a way that he or she can participate and develop optimally. For us, development is a basic right and a condition for a pleasant society. This means more pleasant relationships and more mutual understanding. But a large group of people are still on the side. They want to participate, but cannot. They often do not yet have sufficient competences that are important in our society.
Fortunately, this concern is also shared by politicians. In recent years, the focus has been on learning the language first and obtaining the integration diploma. But you are not there with just an integration diploma and a basic knowledge of the language. In the renewed integration system, the student will be guided towards active participation in society through an integrated approach to adult education and integration. This requires practice-oriented training in collaboration with municipalities, companies and (voluntary) organizations, tailored to the personal learning trajectory of the students, in which we will also involve their environment. TopTaal offers competence-based education in combination with language lessons. For example, lessons in dealing with home administration, upbringing, education and work. Trajectories in the field of Language & Work and Language & Parental Involvement are good examples of how things should be done in our opinion. Participants improve their command of the Dutch language and at the same time learn how they can participate better in our society. Competence-based learning is an important precondition for this.
Together with our clients and partners, we ensure that participants in our courses feel happier in our country, because they participate in society. I am proud that we have so many satisfied students. But also that we can always challenge existing and new relationships with innovative, supportive means. The My TopTaal student tracking system is a very recent example of this. Although we are constantly looking for ways to improve things.
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