Article Arthur de Groot in Xpat Journal
In the spring issue 2012 of The Xpat Journal, Arthur de Groot, partner with GMW advocaten, has written an article about education called "How a poet educates a lawyer". One of the key features of the Dutch educational system (guaranteed under Article 23 of the Constitution, and later also Article 2 of the First Protocol of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is freedom of education; the freedom to found schools (freedom of establishment), and the freedom to organise the teaching in schools (freedom of organisation of teaching) and to determine the principles on which these are based (freedom of conviction). In simple terms, this translates into the right of citizens to found schools and to provide teaching based on ideological, religious or educational beliefs such as Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Steiner, Montessori, Dalton, Freinet or Jena Plan based schools. As a result, today both publicly and privately run schools enjoy an equality of status. At present, there are nearly twice as many privately run as publicly run schools in the Netherlands.
The freedom to organise teaching does not mean that private schools are fully free to determine which subjects they teach or the way in which they are taught. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science sets compulsory quality standards, monitoring their implementation by regular inspections.
For more information read the article.
