The Dutch school system.

The Dutch school system: public and special education

The Dutch school system is the result of a typical Dutch compromise. Unlike many other countries, public and special education exist equally next to each other. Freedom of education brings equal rights to funding by the government. Freedom of education involves three aspects:

1. The founding of a school; citizens are free to start a school.
2. The direction of education; the basis of the school can be religious, political, or educational.
3. The organization of education: within limits, this allows some freedom in teaching material and method.

The equal status of public and special education followed a long school conflict.

School conflict

The start of the school conflict was during the French era in the Netherlands (1795-1813) with the principle of separation of church and state. Until then, the Dutch Reformed Church was in charge of schools, so there was only one school system. Under French influence, education became a state matter. Separate Christian schools could continue with government permission but did not receive government money.

The public school had a Christian influence. The School Act of 1806 said that the public school should teach ‘all Christian and social virtues’. In other ways, the law was stricter for public schools: teachers had to teach classes and be qualified. Parents had to pay school fees.

Most public schools gave mild Protestant teaching, which many Protestants found not strict enough. Anti-revolutionary Groen van Prinsterer worked for much more religious education. Abraham Kuyper, leader of the anti-revolutionaries, supported special schools next to public ones. Protestants got support from Catholics. Catholics gave King Willem I a list in 1840 of complaints about their poor position. Education was central in this list. Public education was often Protestant and did not allow a Catholic influence.

The education pacification

The fight for special education got support from an unexpected source. The 1848 constitution by liberal Thorbecke stressed freedom of education. Thorbecke favored public education but believed everyone could start their own school if teachers were good. This gave a big boost to the school conflict: the right to special education was established by the 1848 constitution. What was missing was the money – financial equality. The political parties ARP, CHU, and Bond for the RK voting associations had big religious differences but shared the fight for equal treatment of special and public education. They fought for this politically and financially.

Political opponents were liberals and socialists. They defended public education and fought hard against any state funding for Christian schools. They believed good education was religiously neutral. Liberals and socialists had one political goal they prized more than public education: voting rights for all men. This required a constitutional change with a qualified majority in the parliament. For this, they needed support from the religious parties.

After years of political struggle, in 1917 a compromise was made. In return for voting rights for all men, special education was made legally equal to public education. Financial equality was included. From then on, special schools got the same government money as public ones. This new situation was fixed in the Primary Education Act of 1920. The school conflict, the so-called education pacification, ended. Together with public education, special education now forms the Dutch school system.