Dutch students know less about democracy and citizenship than peers in comparable countries. That appears from an international investigation in 24 countries into the knowledge and views on these topics among students in the second year of secondary education.
“We compared the Netherlands with other countries in two ways,” says Anne Bert Dijkstra, the program leader for the Netherlands, affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. “The most interesting and relevant is the comparison with four countries that are very similar to us. Then you are talking about Denmark, Sweden, Norway and North Rhine-Westphalia, because Germany participates at the level of the federal states. These countries are the most similar to us in terms of social, cultural and economic characteristics.”
Compared to students in those countries, the knowledge of Dutch students about citizenship and the democratic constitutional state is “significantly lower”. “We also compared the Netherlands with the international average of all 24 countries studied,” says Dijkstra. “In that respect, knowledge in the Netherlands does not differ much.”
The researchers generally do not take a position on the results of their research. On one point they choose “a slightly different line,” says Dijkstra. “We think it is good to emphasize that the results show no improvement since the previous measurement in 2016. In fact, the level of knowledge has further decreased in six years.”
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There are already big differences in democratic values in the first grade
Tightening
In 2016, the results of the study caused concern among policymakers and politicians. That was one of the reasons for tightening the citizenship law for education in 2021. This was intended to make it clearer to schools, which have been required to pay attention to citizenship since 2006, what exactly was expected of them. From now on, they had to have a clear vision of citizenship education and implement this in a targeted manner in their curriculum.
Dutch schools do relatively little about citizenship, the research shows. Teachers were asked how much attention they pay to different perspectives on political and social issues, and to diversity and inclusion. The students were asked how much they had learned at school about, for example, the rule of law, equal rights and human rights. In both cases it appeared that less attention was paid to these topics in the Netherlands.
Dijkstra thinks it is too early to conclude now that the tightening of the citizenship law has not helped, because the last study was conducted in 2022. “But perhaps it is a good thing to think about whether it should be stepped up. What do schools need to properly fulfill that citizenship mission?”
Minister Mariëlle Paul (Primary and Secondary Education, VVD) calls the research “valuable”. “It shows where we are and what needs to be improved. We are already working on that.” She refers to the new citizenship law of 2021 and to the Citizenship Expertise Point that was established to help schools get started.