News item | 21-11-2025 | 11:00
The core objectives lay a solid foundation for all students to prepare well for society and are focused on knowledge, skills and experiences about yourself, others and the world. The core objectives for Dutch, arithmetic, citizenship, digital literacy and Dutch sign language have been published previously. Today the core goals for People and Society, People and Nature, Modern Foreign Languages, Art and Culture and Exercise and Sports. During the conference of the national expertise center for the SLO curriculum, State Secretary Koen Becking of Education, Culture and Science received the new core objectives. A milestone in the revision of the curriculum. The new core objectives give teachers much more clarity and direction about what children really need to learn. How exactly that happens is up to the teacher and the school.
State Secretary Koen Becking: “Good education starts with basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic and with the use of these in subjects such as history and biology. But school also enables students to understand the ever-changing world and to find their own place in it and how to interact with each other. The new core objectives are an important step in improving the quality of education. They are more contemporary and concrete and at the same time prevent the curriculum from becoming overloaded. The core objectives are fixed, but the teacher and the school decide for themselves how to apply them.”
Jindra Divis, director of SLO: “We developed the core objectives together with education. Teachers, school leaders, subject experts, curriculum experts and many others from education worked together to build a clear, feasible and contemporary curriculum. It gives schools focus and space, so that the quality of education can arise where it matters: in the classroom. This gives students a solid foundation to be well prepared for their future and further education.”
More clarity about what children really need to learn
The updated core objectives are in line with the most recent insights and give teachers much more focus than now on providing good education. Teaching time is limited and that is why strict choices have been made when drawing up the core objectives. There is now a beautiful curriculum in which the number of core objectives has been greatly reduced (40 for primary education and 45 for secondary education) and with a solid foundation for basic skills. All goals and their elaboration for primary education and lower secondary education can be found in the SLO publications.
Introduction of core objectives
The ministry is now recording the new core objectives in legislation and regulations. Work is still being done on the core objectives for Frisian language and some of the core objectives for students in specialized education. In addition, SLO is working on renewing the examination programs for upper secondary education.
The previously tightened core objectives of Dutch, arithmetic and mathematics are expected to come into effect on August 1, 2026, and the other learning areas from August 1, 2027. But schools do not have to wait for this. Schools and teachers can already experience the new core objectives and translate them as best as possible to the situation in their own classroom. They are given the time and space to adjust everything step by step with help from the ministry, SLO and other educational organizations. All schools must have adapted their educational offering to the new core objectives by August 2031 at the latest.