Deteriorating quality of education in the Netherlands

From today’s Radio Netherlands Press Review:

The main story on the front pages of today’s Dutch newspapers is the failure of 20 years worth of educational reforms, or, as de Volkskrant puts it: “An interfering government and insistent politicians proved to be disastrous for the quality of education.”

A report published today, that was created by a parliamentary commission to evaluate the educational reforms of the past two decades, concludes that the main objective, higher educational standards, has not been accomplished. Trouw summarises the report’s conclusions as “the disastrous role of politics,” while De Telegraaf demands to “get politics out of the classroom”.

In an editorial, de Volkskrant writes that “the reconstruction of education can now begin.” The paper says that the commission’s report means that the concerns of parents, students, business and social institutions about the deteriorating quality of education have finally got through to the heart of the political machinery. “Quality in education is - for the first time in decades - back at the top of the political agenda.”

Source: Radio Netherlands, 14 February 2008