Education in the Netherlands
The different levels of education in the
Netherlands
Education in the Netherlands is character-
ized by division: education is oriented toward
the needs and background of the pupil. Edu-
cation is divided over schools for different
age groups, some of these in turn divided in
streams for different educational
levels.
Schools are furthermore divided in public
and special (religious) schools. For more than
80 years, parents have preferred independ-
ent schools. Today, around 70% of primary
and secondary pupils attend private inde-
pendent schools.[1]
The Programme for International Student
Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranks
the education in the Netherlands as the 9th
best in the world as of 2008, being signific-
antly higher than the OECD average.[2]
General overview
Life in the Netherlands
Culture
• Architecture
• Cuisine
• Culture
• Customs
• Holidays
• Music
• Religion
• Sport
Economy
• Communication
• Economy
• Recycling
• Taxation
• Transport
Society
• Demographics
• Education
• Customs
• Languages
• Media
• Health care
Government
• Foreign Policy
• Human Rights
• Law
• Law enforcement
• Military
• Politics
Policies
• Gedogen
• Abortion
• Drug policy
• Euthanasia
• Pillarisation
• Prostitution
• Same-sex marriage
Education policy is coordinated by the Dutch
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science,
together with municipal governments.
Compulsory education (leerplicht) in the
Netherlands starts at the age of five, al-
though in practice, most schools accept chil-
dren from the age of four. From the age of
sixteen there is a partial compulsory educa-
tion (partiële leerplicht), meaning a pupil
must attend some form of education for at
least two days a week [2]. Compulsory educa-
tion ends for pupils age eighteen and up.
There are public, special (religious), and
private
schools.
The
first
two
are
government-financed and officially free of
charge, though schools may ask for a parent-
al contribution (ouderbijdrage).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Education in the Neth