General statics about Texel
Texel is the first Eland in the "waddengebied". From all Eland (TV-tas) is Texel the largest island 463,3 km² with the most inhabitants. On average almost 400 address are located per km2 , the population density is 85 inhabitants/ km2 . In total Texel have 13.670 inhabitants, which consist for 49.6% out of males and 50.4% of females. The inhabitants are "real Texelers" only 7% is imported. The next tables will make the population distribution clear.
Age structure on the island
As the figure shows, the demography of the inhabitants shows a normal figure, in comparison with North-Holland and the Netherlands. What stands out is: a number of inhabitants between de 20-25 years. This is only 3.8% . This is an important group on the island, they are young, enthusiastic and creative.
Marital status on the island
Unmarried
29%
Married
56%
Divorced
8%
Widowed
7%
These numbers are almost equal to the average on the mainland. It appears more people are married on Texel, the different is 5%. As the table of the division of households shown, Texel has the highest rating for households without children and the lowest amount of one person households.
Households on the island
Amount of households
6085
one person
34%
Households without children 35%
Households with children
32%
Average household size
2.2
Roughly 25% of this population is able to get children this resulted in 1267 (9%) newborn for the year 2010. Also, 1180 (8.5%) died. But, no equilibrium is reached, this is caused by emigration (7%) . After all, corrections are done, the island has a low exodus, with -3.7% this are 510 persons each year. It can be concluded that if this flow doesn't stagnate, the island becomes uninhabited in 28 years.
Income of the island
Each household needs an income to maintain self-sufficient. In Texel, the unemployment of the island is the LOWEST of the whole Netherlands with 2.9%. Tough, most of these people have 2 jobs, one during the tourist seasons and 1 for all other periods. By doing so, the income of all people in Texel is on average lower than in the rest of the Netherlands. This, stated by the table underneath. This results in a next problem. First people with lower incomes are mostly people who are low educated to vocational & apprenticeship training level and second, they have less money to spend on day life base and less to support the education of their children.
Amount of students participation in each type of education
As the incomes already assumed, the educational level on the island is shocking low, when comparing it with the statics of the Netherlands. As the number of students in comparing with the amount that volunteer the secondary school, only 1,5% is able to go to the university and 7% receive higher education . Also the amount of training is lower than on average. When calculating the numbers, it appears that many students in the Netherlands attend double education, but on Texel almost 50% is not educated at all. Uneducated people are often not suitable for certain jobs and have a low job opportunity, lower income and are not able to run an own business.
Texel %
Nederland %
Vocalional training
22
38
Appertieship training
17
18
Higher education
7
44
University
1.4
25
985 students are attending the high school "De Hoge berg" in 2011, now in 2015, this are 939. In the same period, 1311 children were attending primary school. When the amount of students going for higher education and univeristy is so low, it could be thinkable that this is reflected in the division of the typologies. Whith a little rechears into the school " De Hogenberg" it appears a large amount of students attending VMBO & MAVO. HAVO and VWO are combined classes. It raise the suspection, that by the low amount of children attending all primary schools, the level and quality is low. This reflect on the high amount of low educational type in secundary school and the force amount of students who is not attending higher education like vocal or aperties.
Because there is no opportunity for educational levels higher than the secundary school, students need to leave the island. This could be the reason that 50% of the students is not willing to receive more education. For students of 16 years old, going to the mainland and live on their own is a great step and traveling is mostly not an option. The 540 students that leave the island for higher education probably result in a shrink of the era, because most of them do not come back. The educational level, the need to leave the island to recheave education and the shrink are social-technical problems in Texel.
Retrieved: CBS, note.nl & texel.incijfers.nl
The problem in education and the effect on the community
The secondary school " OSG de Hogenberg" got extra funding the past 10 years from educational funds, but minister M. van Bijsterveld-Vliegenhart have suspended this. Now, the school gets the same amount as other schools in the Netherlands which are above the removal norm. With the lack of extra fundings, the quality of education will decrease. This would have an enormous effect on the students, the school, and the total community. The secondary school, which is the only one, is the beating heart of the community. When there is not enough money, the school will be less suitable for all types of students. An increasingly amount of children are forced to travel to Den Helder to get personally fitted education. The travel is the only 4.2km, but by a lack of transport (ferry, public buses) it will take children 4 hours each day. This wasted time could be spent on doing homework, sport or leisure. Next to this, the cost for transport are very high and for many parents not affordable. Another option is that children will stay in a foster home on the mainland and will see their parents and friends only in the weekend and holidays.
When the children are away from the island, they will not sport with others, have no consumptions, don't need a library, have no bond with the community, become strangers for others, are not willing to participate in projects and actions that are held on the island etc. The island will transform in a sort of "bed and breakfast"; they sleep and eat there and during the day it becomes a limbo, where only pensioned people will live and feel lonely.
While the successful education and jobs possibilities are larger on the mainland, it will count heavily in the decision for people to settle or emigrate. More families will leave the island and fewer people will come back. More houses become vacant and the maintenance on the houses becomes less. Also, the community decrease, fewer activities can be organized, team sport is lacking to find enough players and are forced to stop. Lacking children and parents are not able to entertain themselves in the evenings and in the weekends, the communal bond will decrease and people are less healthy and happy. More households will move towards the mainland, by this fewer purchases are done so the local supermarket will get bankrupt in the end. More jobs get lost and more people will leave the island again. They would have a better change when staying on the island is there were possibilities to retrain their selfs. The lagging populations are older or don't have the financial support to chance their lives or don't have job opportunities by a lack of education.By this the houses become shabby and the vocational happy lovely feeling will disappear. Fewer people will go on vacation and so fewer people are able to maintain their living and more will leave the island searching for luck on the mainland. As this visual chain repeat itself, the population growth decrease, the quality of live decrease, the communal feeling decrease and the financial opportunities decrease.
This can be stopped, by tackling the problem by the source. A good quality of education is needed, fitted on the children, students and adults. Giving personally fitted education, creating space to discuss idea's and give people the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and visions. A higher educated, more specialised, happier and closer community could be reached.
Socio-technical system
Looking at the whole project Texel 2065 with a broad view, a self-sustained educational sub-system can be classified as a transversal sub-system related to all the other more technical subsystems (e.g. water, waste, food, energy, emissions, mobility management). As stated in Borras & Elder, The Governance of Socio-Technical Systems, 2014 (p.27):
‘ Economists have tended to distinguish between several types of technology ‘content’ and the innovation processes associated to them. One such distinction is between enabling/generic technologies, with a horizontal effect over several possible socio-technical systems (including different social organizations and/or industrial sectors), in contrast to some more specific types of technologies with a concrete effect on a more limited set of areas or sectors’. "Teach your own" is included in the first group, as a horizontal subsystem interacting with the more technical and specific ones.
Figure 3. 'Teach your own' as part of Texel 2065
With this simple schematic (Figure 3), we aim to illustrate how a certain amount of people with inner willingness and educated capabilities is essential for the transition of a self-sustained Texel in 2065, and interrelated with the rest of socio-technical subsystems. As stated in Borras & Elder, The governance of Socio-Technical Systems, 2014 (p. 29): ‘action is driven by the perception of what is necessary’ . In other words, it is not only necessary that the texelaars continue their higher education and later employment in the Island, but also that they are informed and perceive the potential for sustainable initiatives for the welfare of Texel.
This reflection defines our first pillar for our socio-technological and innovation system: local people identified with Texel’s welfare, willing to and educated for (‘capable agents’) a transition to a demographically self-sustained Texel 2065 (‘opportunity structures’) and defines the boundaries of our socio-technological system.
Now that the need and driver for change are identified, the second pillar is: how is change influenced? The schematic below proposes some factors that influence the amount of local people involved in building a self-sustained Texel. The ‘instrument’ that influences change and affects the different factors is knowledge development, diffusion and application , through and by the local people in Texel through information and communications technology.
Figure 4. Sociotechnical system delimitation and interaction with different factors
The schematic shows that knowledge formation, diffusion and application affects all the necessary factors to have inhabitants with enough motivation, knowledge and experience to accomplish the 2065 target. Among these factors which interact with the base subsystem, we have included:
Local spirit . Locals how are proud of Texel are the best candidates to feel identified with sustainable activities inside the island. Moreover, they are the ones with valuable everyday knowledge and the ones who will enjoy the product of their own efforts towards sustainability.Future employment opportunities .For young people to stay in the island a future with appealing employment opportunities is one of the main driversPopulation sector . Different groups of population classified according to e.g. age, main occupation or degree of education have different needs and set different priorities according to them. Similarly, they also have different educational needs.Education content . Educating the Texel population in topics such as sustainable entrepreneurship or different technical topics related to the 2065 target and Texel natural resources will stimulate the creation of innovation and the feeling of being part of a community with multiple self-development possibilities.Educational level . "Teach your own" wants to reinforce the higher levels of education (HBO, university) already from highschool. Higher levels of education are needed to raise people who are capable to lead transition and who have appealing job opportunities.Education system and communication channel .Under this heading, we are referring to an efficient and easily approachable way to acquire knowledge and put it into practice without the need to commute to the mainland every day or to leave home for studying.Hands-on experience . In other words, the ability to success in putting the theoretical knowledge into practical, tangible and visible actions.
Finally, the third pillar proposed by Borras & Elder: how to legitimate and make the transition towards a distance learning future accepted by the inhabitants (youngsters) in Texel? At the current point of the study, this looks as the most challenging part. Still many actors, stakeholders and barriers currently existing at Texel are unknown, as well as the functioning of the social institutions and the motivations of the inhabitants (e.g.: students leaving the island, parents of these students, teachers in the current primary schools) or familiarity and degree of acceptance of ICT technologies. However, we can already think of some ideas about how the knowledge development, diffusion and application could be carried out to be more easily accepted.
Learning by doing, using… and enjoying. The education has to include practical training to gain hands-on experience, taking advantage of the island's suitable environment for this. The island natural and technical resources have to be embraced and used to promote (sustainable) activities and hobbies among young people. This way, young people will enjoy about potential future job occupations by doing also recreational activitiesEfficient network for diffusion .An online learning platform has to be efficient for gaining and sharing and gaining knowledge from different places (see Education for remote islands )Different methods for different educational groups . As stated before, different population groups have different needs to be satisfied, different interests and different ways of learning. One important aspect will be to determine under which criteria Texel population can be classified.
