State of education 2026: nearly half of vocational education programs score insufficient.

State of education 2026: nearly half of vocational education programs score insufficient.

The state of education 2026 shows that the situation in secondary vocational education is worrying. It is good for parents of students in secondary vocational education to be aware of this.

Almost half of the programs score insufficiently 

The research by the education inspectorate showed that 45% of the secondary vocational education programs score insufficiently. The distribution of scores is as follows: 

• 53% of the secondary vocational education programs as sufficient 
• 2% as good 
• 44% as insufficient 
• 1% as very weak 

Problems especially with study success 

The main reason for insufficient scores is the lack of study success. This means that in many secondary vocational education programs students leave early or experience delays. 

There are also problems in several parts of improvement and control of the programs. This often causes delays in addressing problems. More than half of the secondary vocational education programs (53%) receive recovery orders from the inspectorate. 

What does this mean for parents? 

Does your child have a secondary vocational education program or is he or she going to choose one? Then pay attention to: 

• Check the quality of the program 
• Ask about support and study success 
• Stay involved, also with older children