News item | 06-11-2025 | 07:00
From checking digital tests to doing administration, from making digital assignments to viewing your school report online. Digital applications have also been indispensable in primary and secondary schools for a long time. At the same time, cyber threats are increasing, according to recent research. School boards and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science have agreed that schools will meet national standards for a digitally safe school environment from 2030. State Secretary Koen Becking (Education, Culture and Science) calls on school boards to get started on this now.
Logically
State Secretary Becking: “Students and employees must be able to learn and work safely digitally. It is logical that schools take measures for this at a time when technological developments are taking place rapidly and cyber criminals are becoming increasingly ingenious. However, this is not yet going well enough everywhere. That is why it is important that school boards start working on this now. That demands a lot from them and that is why we help with that. Because it is essential that they arm themselves well against incidents and know what to do if things go wrong.”
To demand
The safety requirements for schools will increase in the coming years. It has been agreed with the school boards that from 2027 they will know where they stand when it comes to their cyber security. It is important that they have a plan for how they will work towards national standards for digital security. All schools must meet these standards by 2030 at the latest. This concerns, for example, how you can safely exchange privacy-sensitive information with suppliers of digital teaching materials and how schools can best respond if they are hacked.
Digital Safe Education Program
Because schools find it difficult to organize this on their own, the Digital Safe Education program was started in 2023. This program of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Primary Education Council, the Secondary Education Council, Kennisnet and SIVON offers schools support through, for example, guidelines, step-by-step plans and a test that gives schools insight into how they are doing. School boards can already do this test via this tool from Kennisnet. The program will be extended until 2029, Becking writes in a letter to the House of Representatives. The subsidy that can be used to arrange safe internet for schools will also be extended. Becking is allocating a total of 43.8 million euros for this.
Threats
At the end of October, the State Secretary received Kennisnet’s ‘Cybersecurity Threat Assessment 2025’. This shows, among other things, that primary and secondary schools have had to deal with digital attacks such as hacks and DDoS attacks more often in the past two years. This year, several attacks took place, which, for example, made teaching materials inaccessible and threatened the continuity of education. In some cases there was financial damage due to fake invoices or data leaks.