The Dutch government would like to see an increase in the proportion of highly skilled people in the professional population from 24% to 50%. This is needed to make the Netherlands one of the strongest knowledge economies in the world. The Education Council supports this ambition and sees three ways of achieving it.
1 December 2005
Make the best use of talent
The Education Council believes that pupils should have followed a programme of education at as high a standard as possible before they move into higher education. It is better to repeat a year at a higher level than to transfer to a lower-level programme because of disappointing results. The Education Council would therefore like to stimulate the introduction of extra learning periods, and would like to see 'stacking' labelled as ‘effective' rather than ‘inefficient'. The transitions from primary to secondary education, and from secondary education (vocational and general) to higher education need to be made smoother. Transition programmes towards higher education need to be further expanded.
Get more working people into higher education
The second recommendation is to get more working people into higher education. Lifelong learning needs to get through to this sector too. This implies that the proportion of privately offered study programmes will increase and that higher education will be part of the state system to a lesser extent.
Increase performance by increasing variety in the education available
Finally, performance in the higher education system needs to increase. This demands increased variety and flexibility in the education available, as well as a more open system. Increased cooperation is needed between state-funded and unfunded institutions. Performance will also increase if students feel a stronger sense of belonging with their study programme. Large higher education institutions need to reduce the size of their internal organisation to strengthen students' sense of belonging. Particularly in the first few months of the programme, institutions need to invest in their relationship with students. One way of doing this, for example, would be to focus on study skills, in particular for students from ethnic backgrounds.