Biology lessons increasingly being pushed out of the curriculum

Less biology will be taught in schools in the future. Scientists are appalled by the lack of biology lessons in the curriculum that has been approved by parliament. Now biologists have launched a petition calling for more biology lessons in educational institutions.

The Ministry of Education has set its sights on revising the curricula and commissioned the National Curriculum Competence Center, SLO, to update the examination programs. The scheme was approved by Parliament. However, the new examination programs have taken a change of direction, in which biology finds less space.

According to calculations, the total number of biology lessons in HAVO (senior general secondary education) is set to fall by 30 percent from 2026, from 400 to 280. VWO (university preparatory education) will see similar reductions in the number of lessons, falling from 480 to 396.

One of the reasons for the reduction in biology lessons in the curriculum is the Ministry of Education's new master plan for basic skills. This puts more emphasis on language, civics, mathematics, and digital skills, which are therefore given more space in the curriculum.

However, the SLO claims that eventually, it is up to schools to determine how many biology hours they want to include in the curriculum. “This does not necessarily have to lead to a decrease in the number of teaching and study hours,” curriculum expert Gerdineke van Silfhout told Trouw.

But biologists like Tycho Malmberg, director of the Netherlands Institute of Biology (NIBI), disagree. He is certain that this will automatically lead to less biology being taught in schools. "If you give less space in the curriculum, pupils will need to know less and schools will probably teach less biology," he told the newspaper.

According to Malmberg, biology is an essential part of learning about citizenship and language. In general, biological knowledge helps to lead social debates, such as on vaccination. In addition, knowledge of the subject helps to prevent conspiracy theories. Furthermore, biology also contributes “to knowledge about issues such as the nitrogen crisis and climate change, he told Trouw.