Graduation Day: High school graduates celebrate by hoisting school bags on flags

High school students across the Netherlands hung their school bags on flag posts on Thursday to show that they passed their final exams. This usually happens as soon as the results of the central exam are in, but due to these tests being scrapped because of the coronavirus crisis, the Ministry of Education and the association for school pupils LAKS decided to create a national graduation day, NU.nl reports.

Usually, final exam candidates write the central exam in May. But these exams were canceled due to the coronavirus closing schools in mid-March. Most pupils had to learn from home for months, with the help of online lessons provided by their teachers. As a result, this years' final year students will pass or fail based on the results of their school exams. This means that some young people have known that they were getting their diplomas for weeks. But most students only found out on Thursday whether their grades were good enough.

"Now that the doors of the schools are allowed to open again, most graduate students no longer have to go," Minister Arie Slob for Primary and Secondary Education said. "What a strange time to finish high school." Slob hopes that many school bags were hoisted up high on Thursday. "Behind every flag is a student who did not let a pandemic stop them."

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima posted a video on Twitter congratulating all the graduates:

Koning Willem-Alexander en Koningin Máxima feliciteren scholieren met het behalen van hun diploma. #nationaleslaagdag pic.twitter.com/RYX5LitUCo

— Koninklijk Huis (@koninklijkhuis) June 4, 2020

Final year students who did not pass immediately will have another chance in the result improvement tests. These tests are on the subject matter of the school exam and count for 50 percent of the final marks.