A group of 15 Islamic primary schools in the Amsterdam region are calling on parents not to send their kids to a new Islamic high school set to open in the Dutch capital on September 1st. The board of the Islamic education foundation SIO "has no experience or affinity with education", the primary schools said in a joint statement, which is in the hands of NRC.
Sander Dekker
Jul 28 '17 09:01
Primary schools in the Netherlands receive too little money to structurally improve the quality of education, as is required of them, according to a study by independent institute SEO on behalf of primary school association PO Raad, AD reports.
The researchers concluded that there is not enough money to teach each child on his or her own level, to purchase digital learning tools, to retrain teachers, to offer more gym lessons and to prevent students repeating a year. In addition to these high requirements, primary schools also face increasing demands from parents.
Jun 27 '17 07:40
Primary schools teachers across the Netherlands are striking this morning. Almost all primary schools in the country will open at 9:30 a.m., instead of 8:30 a.m. One positive side effect to this strike, is that traffic information service VID expects less traffic on the road during rush hour this morning.
Jun 26 '17 16:05
With primary school teachers across the Netherlands set to strike on Tuesday morning, the outgoing Dutch government announced that it simply can't afford pay raises for them at this stage, the Telegraaf reports.
Jun 7 '17 10:31
Long waiting lists at international schools in the Netherlands are discouraging highly skilled expats from settling in the country. No matter how attractive a job offer is, if their kids can't go to school, expats will choose against moving to the Netherlands, Financieele Dagblad reports.
Apr 19 '17 16:15
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.
Apr 12 '17 11:15
The Education Inspectorate for the first time compared Dutch schools and their students' results and found major differences. The Inspectorate concluded that a student's performance strongly depends on the type of school the child attends. Minister Jet Bussemaker and State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education call the situation worrying, NOS reports.
Apr 4 '17 09:16
Last year a total of 54.720 students repeated a year in high school or failed their final exam, according to figures from education agency DUO. That amounts to 5.7 percent of the total number of high school students, compared to 5.4 percent the previous year, AD reports
The increase in the number of repeaters is a break with the downward trend that started in 2012. Between 2012 and 2015 the number of repeaters fell from 6.5 percent of high school students to 5.4 percent.
Feb 20 '17 09:35
Education Minister Jet Bussemaker and State Secretary Sander Dekker plan to make it easier and quicker for kids to move from preparatory vocational school (VMBO) to vocational school (MBO) with a new law that contains a number of measures.These include allowing kids in VMBO to already take MBO classes and scrapping the intermediate exam before advancing, ANP reports.
The Education officials announced their new law for a so-called continuous learning routes in a letter to parliament on Monday.
Feb 7 '17 10:50
Schools in the Netherlands need major improvements in their integration education, according to the Education Inspectorate, ANP reports.
According to the Inspectorate, Dutch schools are failing wit attempts to teach students about typical Dutch values, despite the fact that schools are required to pay attention to what it means to be a citizen of the Netherlands. Dutch schools' attempts to do so are too unfocused - activities seem unrelated to each other, there is no systematic approach and schools don't formulate what they want to teach their students.
Feb 1 '17 10:29
Many teachers in the Netherlands feel they have to avoid talking about sensitive topics such as sexual orientation and religion in their classrooms, according to a study by DUO. So-called Islamization and terrorist organization ISIS in particular are topics to be avoided. The teachers blame failed integration for this, ANP reports.
Jan 23 '17 10:14
A record number of 184 Dutch schools were given the "excellent" designation this year, 54 more than last year, NOS reports. The schools were evaluated by an independent jury. The "excellent" designation is valid for three years.
A school is deemed excellent if it excels in a particular area, for example suiting its methods of education to the neighborhood it is in, or going above and beyond to help a student. An inspiring way of teaching can also get a school an excellent label.
Jan 12 '17 10:04
The Heerlen police arranged extra protection for the Grotius College and its school grounds. The College's director, teachers and students received threats in response to the suicide of 15-year-old student Tharukshan Selvam on Sunday, AD reports.
Dec 28 '16 08:53
No Islamic primary school will be opening in Naaldwijk in Westland. While the municipality approved the plans for the school, State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education decided not to give his permission. According to him, the plan for the school does not meet all the conditions, NOS reports.
Dec 27 '16 11:30
State Secretary Sander Dekker of Media wants to add an obligation to the new Media Law that will force public broadcasters to be transparent about costs like top salaries and football rights if politicians ask for it, he said to the Telegraaf on Tuesday.
Dekker believes that the public broadcasters' spending must be checkable because it is public money.
The public broadcasters are against this idea. They argue that journalistic independence could be put at stake and that the information is competition-sensitive.
Dec 22 '16 08:00
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.
Dec 5 '16 08:09
Dutch schools still do not specialize enough, which means that not every child gets the specialist support he or she needs, the Education Council wrote in a letter to State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education, NU.nl reports.
The system for appropriate education was implemented in the Netherlands two years ago, and is still not completely up to scratch, according to the letter. The intention behind appropriate education is that more children with extra needs be able to attend a mainstream school.
Oct 31 '16 11:00
Education Minister Jet Bussemaker is investing 87 million euros over the next three years into tackling inequalities in education. The money is intended to make sure that children of poorly educated parents get the same opportunities as children from a higher social environment, NOS reports.
Earlier this year the Education Inspectorate released a report stating that children with the same talents soometimes don't get the same opportunities in school - the family into which you are born still plays a big roll in your education.
Sep 28 '16 11:50
The Dutch government is investing 30 million euros into preventing dropouts and wrong study choices in universities, colleges and vocational schools. The money is intended for high schools to better guide their student in their choice of study and the jobs they hope to have when they're done.
Sep 19 '16 08:21
The number of kids being bullied at school in the Netherlands is decreasing, though it is till a problem many children face on a daily basis, according to State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education. This year 10 percent of primary school kids were harassed by a bully at least once a month, compared to 14 percent two years ago. In high school, that figure decreased from 11 to 8 percent.
Sep 14 '16 16:00
According to State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education, the long May vacation for primary- and high school students is often stressful for parents who have one or more kids at home for three weeks. He therefore wants to schedule the May vacations in such a way that they only take up two weeks
Sep 12 '16 13:20
Many Dutch kids repeat a year of school before they reach the age of seven. This is especially true in Group 2 of primary school, where about 1 in 10 kids are forced to repeat. Last year it amounted to 18 thousand children
Sep 6 '16 11:40
Ster, the foundation that handles advertising on Dutch public broadcasting, reached an agreement with the advertising agency that makes adds for adultery website Second Love to broadcast these commercials only after 9:00 p.m., State Secretary Sander Dekker (Media) wrote to parliament.
Aug 16 '16 08:26
Schools in the Netherlands must be prepared to handle increased tension withing the Turkish-Dutch community following an attempted coup in Turkey last month, according to foundation School en Veiligheid (School Safety). These tensions will also have an impact on children, Klaas Hiemstra of the foundation said to NOS.
