Column: Teacher makes an impact

Last week, we received good news: the NGF committee's positive recommendation regarding the continuation of Npuls. This will give the sector a significant boost: six years to continue developing digital facilities, collective movement, and innovation in education. It is a tremendous opportunity and a shared responsibility.

Such an impulse reinforces the movement we have set in motion in recent years, which we ultimately want to use to reach more than 1.3 million learners per year and more than 100,000 education professionals through educational institutions. Huge numbers, big ambitions, but also a personal question worth asking: What makes you feel moved by this ambition? Has the Npuls ambition already gotten under your skin? What makes you want to get moving — or stay put? What holds you back? What makes you want to get involved? Not just as an institution, but as a professional, as a person? Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

I am committed to working together to keep public continuing education accessible and relevant amid all the geopolitical, social and technological developments. I am involved because I believe in connection in times of change and polarisation, and because I am curious and eager to learn. I am involved because I believe that when there is really something at stake, we need to join forces and be part of a collective that promotes public values. What moves me when I see what we have started together? What has the past year taught me about this?

Npuls is exciting to work on. That makes it interesting but also complicated. It's easy to lose sight of each other when the excitement holds us captive (or carries us away) instead of us holding on to the excitement. I have realised once again: change does not happen automatically from money or plans. Change starts with what matters, what resonates, what rubs us the wrong way. And that's not always rational. It's in the conversations we do or don't have. In what we dare to admit. In what we unconsciously protect. In the tension between wanting and being able, between system and living environment, between ambition and success.

That is why I believe in the importance of honest dialogue. In the conversations we have within Npuls, in the communities, in the CTLs, with the key teams, in the networks between them. About ambitions and obstacles. About where we are loyal to something old, even when we want something new. About what is stopping us from really changing. Not to slow down, but to truly understand what is going on. And that, I think, is where our real “teacher” lies: not in knowing, but in wanting to learn and listen to each other.

Between intention and impact, there is no void, but rather a space for learning, teacher. Teaching arises where we not only execute, but also reflect. Where we make space to learn together from what causes friction. Where we identify patterns, where we acknowledge tension, and where we persistently choose to continue. Not by ignoring resistance, but by taking it seriously — as a sign that we care about something. That is precisely what strengthens the movement that matters. And that is our work: moving education forward.
 
Have a great summer!