Dutch teens rank near top of global survey on life satisfaction
Dutch 15-year-olds are happy with their lives and perform well in school and sports, according to a three yearly study by te Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which Education State Secretary Sander Dekker sent to parliament on Wednesday. Dutch teens give their lives an average score of 7.8, putting the Netherlands in second place for life satisfaction in a list of 35 countries from around the world. Finland came in first, Switzerland came in third.
81 percent of Dutch 15-year-olds feel at home at school and 91 percent don't feel like an outsider. Significantly fewer Dutch teens are bullied than in other countries - 3.3 percent of Dutch 15-year-olds said they are bullied, compared to, for example, 18.3 percent in Singapore and 17.5 percent in New Zealand. South Korea has the fewest bullies - only 2.2 percent of teens indicate that they are bullied.
"Compared with other rich countries, Dutch children are happy and like going to school. That's a big credit to all the teachers who contribute to it every day", Dekker said.
Another big plus for the Netherlands is that almost all 15-year-olds feel supported by their parents. 97.2 percent's parents are interested in school activities, 95.6 percent feel their parents support their efforts and achievements, 96.6 percent feel their parents support them when they have problems at school and 95.5 percent indicated that their parents boost their confidence. With that the Netherlands performs well above OECD average.
