More kids with immigrant roots recommended for university track in high school advice

More school pupils with immigrant roots are being advised to follow the pre-university (VWO) or senior general secondary education (HAVO) track in their secondary school advice. More pupils with a foreign background also followed these forms of education, but their pass rate has decreased more rapidly than average since the coronavirus pandemic, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Friday.

For students born abroad, the proportion recommended for HAVO or VWO increased from 47 percent in 2011/12 to 51 percent in 2022/23. In the 2022/23 school year, 49 percent of primary school pupils whose parents were both born abroad (second-generation immigrants) received a HAVO or VWO recommendation, compared to 38 percent in 2011/12. On average, 57 percent of all group 8 pupils received this advice in 2022/23 and 54 percent in 2011/12. The difference has, therefore, become smaller.

HAVO or VWO is the highest education level advice pupils can receive. The increase in this type of advice among non-Dutch pupils indicates an increase in academic performance. The increase was greatest among the second-generation group with roots in Morocco, from 34 percent recommended for HAVO or VWO in 2011/12 to 50 percent in 2022/23. For pupils born abroad, the increase was highest among pupils born in Turkey, from 30 percent to 67 percent.

In the 2023/24 school year, 49 percent of students in the third year of secondary school attended HAVO or VWO. “This share has also increased among students of foreign origin,” CBS said - from 30 percent in 2011/12 to 41 percent eleven years later for the second-generation group, and from 39 to 46 percent in the group of students born abroad.

In the 2022/23 school year, 86 percent of HAVO and VWO students passed, less than in the previous year. The pass rate was below average for students with Turkish (69%), Moroccan (70%), Surinamese (74%), and other non-European backgrounds (78%).

During the coronavirus pandemic, more flexible rules applied for the final exams, and pass rates were higher. Since then, the pass rates have decreased again. In 2022/23, the pass rates were back to the around 2011/12 level. “The share of students from the five origin groups with the lowest pass rates has fallen faster than average since the coronavirus years and, except for students with a Turkish background, is lower than in 2011/12,” CBS said.