Summer holidays end for North Netherlands pupils

Pupils in Amsterdam and the rest of the northern Netherlands said goodbye to the summer holidays and headed back to school today. Schools in the center of the country start next week, and pupils the southern parts of the country will be heading back to the classroom on August 31st, Het Parool reports. The dates for the summer holidays change by region each year. When scheduling the holidays, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Education takes the balanced distribution of holidays over the school year and the final examinations into account. The next holiday is the autumn holiday that starts on October 17th for the north and central regions and lasts for a week. The southern regions' autumn holiday starts a week later. Today is also the first day of introduction weeks in some Amsterdam higher education institutions.