Kids with Arabic or African-sounding names get lower secondary school advice

The Dutch education system just can’t eliminate the inequality of opportunity surrounding school advice. A new study by the research agency SCALIQ found that pupils with an Arabic-sounding name are structurally placed at a lower school level than equally intelligent children with a European-sounding name. The same happens to kids with African- or Spanish-sounding names, NU.nl reports.

Secondary education in the Netherlands is divided into five levels - the practical preparatory levels of practical education and vmbo-b/k, and the three theoretical levels of vmbo-t, havo, and vwo. The primary school’s advice plays a big role in determining the level at which a pupil ends up.

SCALIQ examined the intelligence of 6,409 secondary school students with an average age of 13.9 and compared this with their school level. They found that 50 percent of the 481 pupils with an Arabic first and last name were placed half a school level lower than students with a comparable intelligence level and a European name. Pupils with an African or Spanish name also end up in a slightly lower level on average.

“Purely and solely your name leads to a big difference,” SCALIQ researcher Femke Hovinga said about the results of the study (Un)equal start. Getting placed half a school level lower is a very big difference, she said. “Because we only have five school levels. Moreover, suppose you get a havo/vwo recommendation instead of vwo, then in practice, a havo school level often rolls out.”

SCALIQ recommended more research into other factors that may play a role, such as socio-economic status and cultural expectations, but the fact that it affects so many children shows that something is structurally wrong.

Suzan de Winter-Koçak, a senior researcher at the Verwey-Jonker Institute and not affiliated with the SCALIQ study, called the results “a very good addition” to other studies showing inequality in education. “Education professionals will probably say that they provide customized solutions,” she told NU.nl. “That they also look at other things around a student and that this can lead to a different school recommendation.” But that argument “obviously does not apply” if there are structurally large differences between students with or without a Dutch-sounding name. “Then explanations are more likely to be found in (unconscious) discrimination or institutional racism.”

The Ministry of Education told NU.nl that it was studying the results of the study. “We know that groups of students were structurally underestimated in the school recommendation,” a spokesperson said. The Ministry stressed the importance of finding a suitable place for students when they go to secondary education. That is why the Ministry adheres to the controversial placement test as an “objective fact” to combat inequality.