At the end of the 2001-2004 period, the Education Council took stock. The conclusion: education in the Netherlands is reasonably good. In some areas, the Netherlands actually ranks above average. Yet there is always room for improvement.
17 January 2005
In Europe, the Netherlands leads the way in terms of freedom of choice in education. Institutions have a relatively great degree of autonomy. Schools are given a lot of room to set their own priorities and to respond to needs in the local environment. The quality of the education is guaranteed. Furthermore, participation in education and the average level of achievement have increased. In international comparisons, Dutch pupils score well.
Yet there are also causes for concern. The high early drop-out rates, for example. If the Netherlands wants to rank among the top in Europe, special investments in both the weaker pupils and the highly talented pupils will be needed. There is also the issue of the ageing teacher population. This fact along with the image that teaching is a tough profession put pressure on drawing new recruits to teaching. We need to be alert if we want to have enough teachers in the future to achieve top ambitions.
Introduce an educational canon
Education could make a greater contribution to the development of a Dutch cultural identity. The Education Council therefore believes that a cultural canon for schools should be introduced to guide them through the most important aspects of our culture and history
Respect for others can increase if we know who we are and where we came from. Knowledge of your own identity strengthens the concept for others. Apart from knowledge of the past (‘the story of the Netherlands'), education could help young people to give a modern interpretation to the concept of citizenship. A canon for education would make a significant contribution to this.
The Education Council views the canon not as a static document, but as a guideline that changes over time. The learning content of the canon should be translated to concrete topics in subjects such as languages, history, society, culture & art, science and geography.