Too many Dutch kids registered as dyslexic: Education Minister

Minister Jet Bussemaker and State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education are concerned about the number of children in the country registered as dyslexic. With a dyslexia statement school students can get a number of advantages, including longer time to complete an exam and having the questions read to them, NOS reports.

A study by the Ministry revealed that at 30 percent of primary schools between 10 and 19 percent of the students have a dyslexia statement. At 8 percent of primary schools this percentage is even higher. At 40 percent of pre-vocational schools, 20 percent of final exam students had such a statement.

Bussemaker and Dekker find these percentages too high. According to international research, a 10 percent dyslexia rate is normal. The Ministry will do further research, including to make sure that some kids weren't mistakenly labeled dyslexic. "This is amiss because in this way these students don't get the education and support they need to get rid of their reading and/or spelling problems", the Minister and State Secretary wrote to the Tweede Kamer.

They are also concerned that there is a group of students who got the dyslexic statement in an "improper" manner in order to abuse the extra facilities given to dyslexic students.