DOCUMENT RESUME ED 129 671 SO 009 444 TITLE Reviews of National Policies for Education. Netherlands: Contours of a Future Education System. INSTITUTION Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France). PUB DATE 76 NOTE 95p. AVAILABLE FROM OECD Publications Center, Suite 1207, 1750 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 ($4.00) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$4.67 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Comparative Analysis; *Comparative Education; Data Analysis; Educational Assessment; Educational Objectives; Educational Philosophy; *Educational Planning; *Educational Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; *Futures (of Society) ; Government Role; Higher Education; Program Descriptions; Program Development; Tables (Data); Trend Analysis aDENTIFIERS *Netherlands ABSTRACT Guidelines for the development of the Dutch educational system from 1975 to 1995 are presented in this booklet. Part of a series of reviews of member countries'educaticnal planning and policy, this document is presented in three parts.Part I, Background Report, is the official English summary of the original report titled "Contours of a Future Education System" andknown as the Contours Memorandum. It emphasizes educationalobjectives, the social implications of education, the teacher's role, costs,and efficiency, and describes ideal future schools from the elementary level through higher education. Part II, Examiners' Reportand Questions, presents the report of the Organization forEconomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) examiners who visited the Netherlands in 1976: This section includes criticisms and comments on all phases of the original report and specificquestions on statements made in the report. Part III, TheConfrontation Meeting, gives an account of the discussion which took place at the May1976 meeting of the OECD Education Committee between theexaminers and the Dutch delegation. A list of the examiners and the Dutchdelegation members is included in the report. (Author/DB) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informalunpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERICmakes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless,items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered andthis affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERICmakes available * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). 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QUIRES PERMISSION OFTHE COPYRIGHT OWNER NETHERLANDS CONTOURS OF *^ A FUTURE EDUCATION SYSTEM tvL4 OECD REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION NETHERLANDS CONTOURS OF A FUTURE EDUCATIONSYSTEM ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATIONAND DEVELOPMENT PA RIS 1976 3 IIi()rganisationfor Economic Co-operation :1t1(1 1)evel- OpInt'llt( )1':( .1)1\\LSIt111)illItIli (.1)11 \all 1)1I Sigal('(IIIIParis011 1)creni hf !!)61).%N. I ich IliIIitIist hal111(' )1(.. I) shall pro- mote policies to achieve the highest stismillable economic growth ;uI(I employment and a rising- standard of living in Nlember countries. while maintaining financial stability, aml dins contiibutt. to the development oldie %vorld (Tommy; iii CoIrItriblite tO) Soffitid eXpanSii(IIiiNleinhiCr .(1.ti \VCII IS tiooiiiiitiiilooi countries iii the process of economic development; to contribute to the exp.uision of World trade oo a multi- lateral. non,discritiiiiiator basis in :tceordance ithi inter- national obligations. The Nlendwrs or( )1.:(:1);ont, Australia. (ana- da, 1)etimark. Finlaud. France, the Vederal Republic of Germany, Creece. leelaml. Ireland. Italy. Japan. Luxembourg. the Nether- ..Xev Zealaffil. Nonvav. Portugal. Spain, Svcden, Turkey. the Cuited ;Intl the 1..!ititecl States. ,t OECD, 1976, Queries concerning permissions or translation rights should be .,tddressed to: Director of InlOrmation, 01.1:1) 2,1111'AndlY-Pascal. 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France. 4 PREFACE In September 1975, the Dutch Minister ofEducation, Dr. Jos van Kemenade, produced a discussiondocument entitled 'Contours of a Future Education System'. This 'Contours Memorandum', as it came to be known, suggestsguidelines for the development of the Dutch system over the next 20 years,ranging from an integrated primary school fcr 4 - 12 year olds to proposalsfor the unification of the higher education sector. It was proposed that the document should be open for discussion and comment untilAugust 1976, follow- ing which a second version would bepublished. It was as part of this process of initial debate that the OECDundertook to carry out a review of the document inits series of reviews of Member coun- tries' educational policy and planning. In a sense, this exercise represents a departure from the normal runof OECD reviews, in that it deals with a set of proposals andguidelines rather than with the actual functioning of existing policies,but it was thought that the approach to planning adopted by the Dutchin this instance offered an unusual opportunity toapply the established review technique at an early stage in policyformulation, even if it entailed mounting and carrying out the review in a rathercompressed period of time. The Examiners vigited the Netherlands in March1976; their re- port was discussed at the May meeting ofthe OECD Education Committee, and forms Part II of this volume. Part I is the official English summary of the Contours Memorandum(the whole document was published in English, and it should be notedthat this summary gives only the barest of bones), and Part III is an accountof the discussion which took place in the Education Committee.A list of the Examiners and the Dutch delegation is to be found inthe Annex. The OECD Secretariat wishes tothank both the Examiners for the energy and commitment with whichthey carried out their task, and the Dutch authorities for theirwillingness to engage in public de- bate and their whole-hearted co-operationin the execution of the exercise. 5 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 3 Part One BACKGROUND REPORT Contours of a future Education System in the Netherlands (Summary of a Discussion Memorandumprepared by the Ministry of Education and Science) 6 Part Two EXAMINERS' REPORT AND QUESTIONS I. Introduction 28 II. Basic Education 32 III. Education After the Age of Sixteen 39 IV. The Relation between the Labour Market and the Education System 47 V. Cost and Finance 52 VI. Planning and Implementation 57 VII. Examiners' Questions 62 Part Three THE CONFRONTATION MEETING 20th May, 1976 I. Introductory Remarks 70 II. Costs and Finance 75 III. The Upper Secondary School and Recurrent Education . 81 IV. Curriculum and Teacher Training 86 V. Planning and Implementation 89 Annex: Members of the Netherlands Delegation at the Meeting and Examiners 93 4 6 Part One BACKGROUND REPORT CONTOURS OF A FUTURE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE NETHERLANDS (Summary of a Discussion Memorandum prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science) CONTOURS OF A FUTURE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE NETHERLANDS Summary of a Discussion Memorandum The contours of a coherent education system to be introduced into the Netherlands before the year 2000 this is the subject of a lengthy discussion memorandum published on 18 June by the Minister of Education and Science, Dr. J.A. van Kemenade, and the two State Secretaries of Education and Science, Dr. G. Klein (higher education) and Dr. A. Veerman (secondary education). The memorandum, entitled 'Contours of a future education system' is intended as an initial proposal addressed to Dutch educational circles. Organisations and.individuals are invited to submit their comments to the Minister before 1August 1976 and in this way to take part in discussion on the eLlucation system that the Minister and State Secretaries wish to see. They will look at the memorandum again in the light of the comments and revise it as they think de sirable. This will be followed by a second round of discussions. On the basis of these, a firmer proposal will be formulated and pre sented to Parliament. Broader educational objectives There has been a shift in the objectives and in the function of education over the years, as is very clearly apparent from the con siderations underlying succeeding attempts to raise the school leaving age, successful or otherwise, ever since 1806. At first the overriding consideration was the protection of the most defenceless members of society against exploitation; later the emphasis fell on the need for skilled and professional manpower, while, in the last ten years especially, the right of the individual to develop his full potential and the need to prepare him for a place in society in the broadest sense have gained the upper hand. This shift in educational objectives, and thus in the educa tional system and its content, has of course not happened by chance. It is determined very