Education in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands
there are public and independent schools. Public schools are
ruled by local government .
However
independent schools are governed by a board of (mainly) parents. These schools work from a certain religion or philosophy of life. Public and independent schools can also choose for a certain educational theory such
as Montessori , Jena plan and Dalton.
All schools receive the same grant per student
and have to respect governmental
rules.
Some children will never meet with requirements for
ordinary schools. However the aim in
the Dutch educational system is to keep
as many of these children as possible
in ordinary schools. There are special schools, which are not further
mentioned in this paper.
Basisschool- Primary
education for children of 4 – 12 years old.
Secondary schools - there are three types of schools:
1 vmbo
2 havo
3 vwo
These three types start with ‘basisvorming’ (basic education) . The first years
all students will do the same subjects.
These are Dutch, English , French and/ or German,
history and civics, geography, biology,
mathematics, science, technology, home
economics, economics, physical education, computer science and two
art-subjects.
In Friesland
most schools teach Frisian too. Students should meet up with requirements of the ‘basisvorming’ within
three years.
In the first three years there are 32 lessons of 50 minutes a week.
At least 25 lessons
are subjects from the
‘basisvorming’; a school is free to have other subjects like religion and study
lessons on the curriculum. The Government
publishes lists of how many
lessons it will take to meet up with the requirements at the end of the
‘basisvorming’ . A school is free to decide
how many lessons she will spend on a subject. However the number of
lessons for civics, physical education and art subjects are compulsory.
5.3.1
VMBO : This type has been introduced since August 1999.
It is
divided in 4 levels .Students who leave school with lowest level are often
still school-able. They start working, but have to go to school for one
a day a week until their eighteenth.The
other levels give admission to secondary professional education. However
the highest level also gives admission to Havo 2nd phase.
At each level there are 4 sectors -
technology
-
health and care
-
agriculture
-
economic
Within these sectors there metal working ,electricity and fashion. Most school
don’t have all 14 departments. At our school it’s not possible to
choose agriculture. All students have
to do a final exam for 6 subjects. Dutch and
English , two subjects related to a
sector , and two subjects free
to choose.
HAVO: This type of
education takes 5 years and is a preparatory school for higher professional education. It also
gives admission to the 5th class of
VWO.
VWO: This type of
education takes 6 years and gives
admission to university.There are two sections: atheneum and gymnasium.
Gymnasium : Greek and Latin are compulsory subjects .
Studiehuis 2e fase.
Since August 1998
a renovation ,called ‘ studiehuis
2e fase’,( 2nd phase)
has started in HAVO and VWO.
The role of the teacher has changed into mainly
supervising . The student has to learn more and more independently.
Before the
curriculum was based on lesson-hours, now it is based on the time a
student spends on his/her education .This means the burden of study
for HAVO is 3200 hours in two years and for
VWO 4800 hours in three years.
After the ‘basisvorming of three years havo and vwo
students have to choose a profile.
5.3.2
‘2nd phase HAVO’ :
1 Compulsory
forall students: Dutch 400 hours
English 360
Another
language 160
history and
civics 120
science 160
culture
and art 1 120
physicaleducation 120
total 1480
hours.
nature
and health
mathematics 320 science
240
chemistry 280 biology
1,2 320
nature and technology
mathematics1,2 440
science
1,2 440
chemistry 1,2 280
economics
and society
methamatics 280 economics1,2 440
geography 200
history 240
culture and society
a language 2 or 1,2 200 /360
culture and art
2,3 360
history 240
economics 1 200
mathematics A1 160
5.3.3
a profile has a total of at least 1160 hours
(If a profile takes more than 1160 hours , it will be
compensated in the free part.)
3 Free part 560
hours
total study hours 3200 hours
The free part can be used to enlarge possibilities for
further education or to do a subject like computer science.
It ‘s also possible to work for a school paper or on projects like Comenius.
All students have to do a final exam.
Part of the exam is school tests
and there is an exam installed by
government. If a student fails the
final exam he/she will get certificates for the subjects with a sufficient
result.
5.3.4
Financial
matters
In the
Netherlands children are school-able till their seventeenth. Until then
education is free. A seventeen-year-old student has to pay school fees of about 805 Euro . In some cases parents of seventeen-year-old students can get a grant. A student over
eighteen receives a grant, although
parents are legally responsible for
cost of living and education of their children until they are 21.
Schools are allowed to ask parents to pay a
contribution for festivals,
school trips, etc. At our school this is 40,50
Euro per student. If parents refuse to pay or can’t pay this
contribution a student might be
excluded from extra activities
training.
Only primary schools provide their students with
books. At most secondary schools students can rent the books.
A school receives a budget per student from
government. From this budget the school has to pay everything, including
salaries. A secondary school student
costs the government about 3860 euro a
year.
Training to become a
teacher.
A havo
certificate gives admission to a profession training for primary teachers or
secondary teachers 2nd degree. These courses take 4 years. A qualification for teachers first degree
takes 2 years extra. These teachers are qualified for teaching studiehuis2e fase and higher professional education.
Teahers of secondary
schools
In the Netherlands
a full time teacher has a task of 1659 hours per year. A school year has
40 weeks. Each week has 26 lessons
. This means that about 2% of the teacher’s task consists of other
activities like organizing festivals, school trips, study lessons , a
tutorship, etc.
10% of the teacher’s year task is available for
further education. Officially a Dutch
teacher works an average
of about 38
hours a week. Nowadays many teachers work many more hours. This is due to the
renovations in education and the shortage of teachers.
Since the seventies
renovations have been introduced into the Dutch educational system. Many
of them stopped after some time. A few years ago “basisvorming” was introduced.
After the experiences with former
renovations many schools / teachers
haven’t taken the ‘basisvorming’
seriously. The investments on
‘Basisvorming’ have been on a very low profile.
5.3.5
However a continuation is now a fact by introducing the new VMBO and the
‘studiehuis 2e fase’ .
The teaching profession used to enjoy esteem in
society. This has changed a great deal.
During the last years the main Dutch policy was to reduce a budgetary deficit.
As a result salaries in health care and education have stayed up to 20%
behind in comparison to other sectors. About 60% of new qualified teachers look
for and easily find a better paid job.
About 10 years ago it was hard to find a job as a teacher. Now schools have severe problems in filling up vacancies .
Teachers Vmbo/basisvorming teachers havo/vwo 2nd phase
salaries in Euro
|
Bt2 |
1925 |
|
|
10_1 |
1943 |
|
Bt3 |
1957 |
|
|
10_2 |
2039 |
|
Bt4 |
2002 |
|
|
10_3 |
2144 |
|
Bt5 |
2033 |
|
|
10_4 |
2235 |
|
Bt6 |
2084 |
|
|
10_5 |
2326 |
|
Bt7 |
2117 |
|
|
|
|
|
Bt8 |
2146 |
|
|
11_0 |
2500 |
|
Bt9 |
2180 |
|
|
11_1 |
2594 |
|
Bt10 |
2215 |
|
|
11_2 |
2678 |
|
Bt11 |
2251 |
|
|
11_3 |
2763 |
|
Bt12 |
2286 |
|
|
11_4 |
2847 |
|
Bt13 |
2307 |
|
|
11_5 |
2942 |
|
Bt14 |
2328 |
|
|
11_6 |
3036 |
|
Bt15 |
2350 |
|
|
11_7 |
3126 |
|
Bt16 |
2368 |
|
|
11_8 |
3216 |
|
|
|
|
|
11_9 |
3306 |
|
9_5 |
2413 |
|
|
11_10 |
3393 |
|
9_6 |
2450 |
|
|
11_11 |
3439 |
|
9_7 |
2593 |
|
|
|
|
|
9_8 |
2678 |
|
|
12_5 |
3485 |
|
|
|
|
|
12_6 |
3575 |
|
10_10 |
2763 |
|
|
12_7 |
3662 |
|
10_11 |
2847 |
|
|
12_8 |
3752 |
|
10_12 |
2942 |
|
|
12_9 |
3864 |
|
|
|
|
|
12_10 |
3920 |
Salaries of principals and vice principals between
3485 and 5151 Euro.
Other principals( department leaders) between 3036 and
4257 Euro.
5.3.6
Privileges for a
teacher of 52 years up till
56: a reduction of 170 hours a year at a cost of 25/35% of his/her salary for this hours. At the age of
56 you can get a reduction of 340 hours a year. At the age of 61 this reduction
of work will cost 10/20% .
Teachers can save time for an intermission of their
career of a minimum of 240 hours and a maximum of 720 hours. A teacher can save
for this leave by working one lesson a week for free. Some use this leave for a
study others use it for a special journey or extra holiday.
