Development of inclusion - Netherlands

Participation and enrolment

Equality and equity are important characteristics of the Dutch educational system. Policy aims at striving for inclusion of all pupils. This is visible in the accessibility of education. Although compulsory education starts at the age of 5, most children start school at the age of 4. The participation in education of 5-14 years-olds in the Netherlands is 99 per cent. Of the 15 of 19 year olds,  86 per cent attend school. The participation in education of 20 to 29 year olds is 26 per cent. The participation in education of 30 to 39 year-olds in the Netherlands is 3 per cent (see figure 4).

Figure 4: The Dutch educational system with percentages of a cohort of pupils leaving primary education, 2006  (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2008)

Combating poverty, social inclusion and marginalisation

Education is seen as a very important tool to combat poverty, social inclusion and marginalisation. Education is open to all pupils, emphasizes equality and provides each pupil with equal opportunities for development and participation in society, and to foster social inclusion and cohesion. To make this happen a number of policy measures are in place:

1. Compulsory education is free of charge. Schools may ask for voluntary parental contribution for extra activities (e.g. celebrations, excursions), but it may not constitute an obstacle to the admission of pupils.
2. Policies are in place to provide schools with additional resources and staff to support pupils with a potential educational disadvantage in order to improve their educational achievement and career prospects.
3. The recent policy on support for disadvantaged pupils requires municipalities to draw a local educational agenda together with school boards and childcare providers. In the local agenda school boards, local municipalities, and childcare providers discuss and decide on how best educational disadvantages can be combated and how segregation - high concentrations of either ethnic minorities or Dutch pupils in certain schools - in education can be avoided.
4. Combating early school leaving is a central policy priority. The national objective is to reduce the annual number of new early school-leavers by 50 per cent between 2002 and 2012.
5. Early detection of potential disadvantages among young children and increased enrolment of children from underprivileged backgrounds, who are at risk of educational or language disadvantage, in preschools.
6. The development of community schools is stimulated. In these schools collaborate with other social services like the police, health and welfare services, and sports and cultural institutions to enhance pupils’ opportunities for development. Dutch municipalities, who are in charge of the community schools, aim to have set up 1200 community schools by 2010.
7. To foster social inclusion and participation of pupils in society, the Primary Education Act and Secondary Education Act were recently amended with an additional specification, which oblige schools to offer education that 'stimulate active citizenship en social integration'. The Acts more specifically state that education should enable pupils to get acquainted with the various cultural backgrounds of their fellow pupils.

Access to mainstream education for pupils with special educational needs

The philosophy of inclusion is also visible in special needs education. In the last decade, there is a growing tendency to integrate more children with special needs into mainstream education. Policy aims to decrease the number of pupils with special educational needs in special schools and increase their integration in mainstream school. The emphasis is on improving the bandwidth in dealing with diversity in mainstream schools and stimulating cooperation between schools at a regional level. 

Movements of pupils from mainstream primary schools to special primary schools have fallen in recent years. In 2007, approximately 8,600 mainstream primary school pupils were referred to special primary schools. The movements from mainstream primary schools to special education and secondary special education have remained fairly constant over the past few years. The number of children being referred back from special schools to mainstream primary schools has fallen slightly in recent years. In 2007, approximately 700 pupils were referred back to mainstream education.

The number of primary school pupils attending mainstream schools with peripatetic supervision from a (secondary) special school continues to rise. In 2003, some 9,600 pupils in mainstream primary schools were receiving supervision from (secondary) special schools. By 2007, this number had increased to approximately 21,200. In addition, pupils qualifying for admission to special education and secondary special education were increasingly being admitted directly to mainstream secondary schools with peripatetic supervision from a (secondary) special school. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of pupils receiving peripatetic supervision in mainstream secondary schools increased from 4,300 to more than 14,400.

Figure 5:  Referrals to special primary education (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2007)
Note: From BAO, SO and outside the education system (numbers x 1000)

Figure 6: Numbers receiving peripatetic supervision (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2007)
Note: From special and secondary special education (numbers x 1000)

Quality of education

Another important issue in the Netherlands is the quality of education for all pupils, especially for pupils and students with special educational needs, irrespective of the place where education their takes place – in special schools or mainstream schools. There is increasing attention for learning outcomes, especially concerning literacy and numeracy skills. Besides the well-being of pupils, cognitive development becomes more and more important. Through different policy measures both mainstream and special schools are supported to provide all that is needed to qualify pupils with SEN as high as possible. Strengthening the accessibility (physical and curricular) of secondary, vocational and higher education is a challenge that has been taken up in the policy arena.

Adequate education for all pupils
Currently a new policy is being put into place, called Adequate education. An important aim of this policy is to improve the realisation of education for every pupil with special educational needs within the educational system. The policy arose of out the felt need and desire to improve the care for special needs students, to streamline the provisions for special needs education that each have their own funding and procedures, and to avoid that children get lost between the systems. Under this policy, every school board has the responsibility to provide adequate education for every pupil that enrols, regardless his specific educational needs and the kind of support that he needs. By cooperating with other school boards at a regional level, schools are required to arrange educational  provisions in such a way that every child can be educated taking into account the special educational needs. Schools are free to decide on how the arrangements are offered. Currently, schools in different regions schools have started with first pilots. Depending on the different outcomes and experiences within the pilots, legislation will be adapted in 2012. Some important features of this policy are:

• no child left behind: school boards have the responsibility to provide an adequate place in the educational system for every child;
• cooperation between boards of different school types, including primary education, secondary education, vocational education, and special education;
• cooperation between schools and other organisations and institutions responsible for the care and well-being of children (health organisations, youth care, etc);
• participation of all stakeholders (school board, management, teachers and parents)

Adequate qualifications

Currently different policy initiatives are being taken to enhance the possibilities for mainstream and special secondary schools to qualify pupils with special educational needs as high as possible.  The current structures for certification of special needs students are currently looked in to in order to identify problems faced by schools
and to search for possible to enhance the quality in developing adequate qualifications. The adagium being that every pupil counts and has the right to be qualified as high as possible.

Dealing with special educational needs

One of the challenges in the Dutch education context is to reduce the number of pupils with special educational needs who are referred to special schools. In 2007, approximately 8,600 mainstream primary school pupils were referred to special primary schools. The movements from mainstream primary schools to special education and secondary special education have remained fairly constant over the past few years. The number of primary school pupils attending mainstream schools with peripatetic supervision from a (secondary) special school continues to rise. In 2003, some 9,600 pupils in mainstream primary schools received supervision from (secondary) special schools. By 2007, this number had increased to approximately 21,200. In addition, pupils qualifying for admission to special education and secondary special education were increasingly being admitted directly to mainstream secondary schools with peripatetic supervision from a (secondary) special school. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of pupils receiving peripatetic supervision in mainstream secondary schools increased from 4,300 to more than 14,400.  The greatest challenge is to reduce the growth of pupils with behavioural problems who are referred to schools in cluster 4.

The current policy to integrate more learners with special educational needs in mainstream education asks for more tailor-made curricula. This requires a lot from schools and teachers (van Leeuwen, 2008). It is important to realise that schools differ in the way they design and implement the curriculum for pupils with special educational needs, the people who are involved and their tasks and responsibilities in this process. In addition, there are differences between teachers in knowledge, skills and attitude and there are differences between pupils with special educational needs as well. To strengthen the role of the teacher in enhancing the curricular and social integration of special needs students, both curriculum development, school development and teacher development should be stimulated.