Secondary school final exams start with new helpline against stress

Approximately 185,000 secondary school students are starting their central written final exams this Friday. In addition to the well-known Final Exam Complaints Line, the National Student Action Committee (LAKS) also launched a stress helpline this year.

The stress helpline is for final-year students who do not wish to file a complaint but “need a listening ear during this stressful period.” Because, according to LAKS board member Inass Jagour, students deserve “a place to express stress and pressure to perform.” Jagour pointed to a study that revealed that six out of ten teenagers regularly or frequently experience pressure to perform, a threefold increase compared to the beginning of this century.

“Multiple factors play a role. Consider social media, where young people can constantly compare themselves to others, which creates pressure. Furthermore, students are expected to perform well at school and maintain good social contacts. And due to the teacher shortage, there is more focus on didactic progress, but less on the mental well-being of young people, even though that should not be neglected,” Jaguar said.

LAKS learned through the Final Exams Complaint Line that final-year students like to vent their stress, Jaguar explained. “We issued a call to only contact the line with substantive and practical complaints, rather than complaining just to vent. Suddenly, the number of reports dropped from 380,000 in 2024 to 240,000 last year. That was the signal to us that students often feel judged and want to be heard. The idea for the stress line was born from that experience.”

Starting Friday, students can call LAKS and will be redirected via a menu to either the complaints or stress helpline. LAKS submits practical or substantive complaints to exam developers and educational institutions, so they can implement improvements. “Last year, we approached 122 schools with this,” Jaguar said.

The LAKS complaint line has been open since April 1, when the digital exams for VMBO began. On Friday morning, the counter stood at 593 complaints.

Approximately 185,000 secondary school students will begin their central written final exams this Friday. Students on the VMBO mixed and theoretical tracks will take mathematics, while HAVO students will take philosophy and Dutch. VWO students will take exams in art and business economics.

The last exams in the first period will be written on May 27. The results will be announced on June 11. After that, there will be resits. On June 30, students will know definitively whether they have passed and will graduate from secondary education.