The OECD Review of Digital Education Policy in the Netherlands was conducted as part of the OECD project Resourcing School Education: Policies for the Digital Transformation of Education and Future-Readiness of Teachers. The project is undertaken by the Policy Advice and Implementation Division within the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, under the guidance of the Group of National Experts on School Resources (GNE-SR). It is part of the Programme of Work of the OECD’s Education Policy Committee. The project’s aim is to support countries in designing system-level policies that enable their school sectors to achieve excellence, equity and resilience in the digital age (see Annex A for more information on the OECD project).
The Netherlands is one of the countries that participate in the project with an in-depth country review, which provides an independent and comparative analysis of digital education policy in primary and secondary schools, identifies key strengths and challenges, and offers policy options to support future reforms. The report aims to offer insights and advice to education authorities in the Netherlands, to help other countries understand the Netherlands’ approach to digital education policy, and to provide input for the comparative analyses of the OECD’s Resourcing School Education project.
The report is organised in six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the education system with a focus on digital education policy. Chapter 2 analyses the system’s governance, central strategies and the monitoring and evaluation of digital education at the system-level. Chapter 3 covers funding mechanisms and the procurement of digital education resources. Chapter 4 analyses the EdTech and education materials markets. Chapter 5 focusses on capacity building and the future roles of teachers. Chapter 6 analyses the curriculum framework, assessments and school evaluations. The analyses presented in this report draw on a wide range of evidence, including information provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) in the form of a background report, evidence from the OECD’s Policy Survey on School Education in the Digital Age, as well as interviews and school visits conducted by the authors during an OECD review visit on 10-14 June 2024 (see Annex C for a detailed itinerary).
The members of the OECD review team were Luka Boeskens (OECD Secretariat), who led the review and work on Chapters 1 and 3; Katharina Meyer (OECD Secretariat at the time of the review visit), who led the work on Chapter 6 together with Luka Boeskens; Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta (University College London), who led the work on Chapter 4; Karine Tremblay (OECD Secretariat), who led the work on Chapter 2 and contributed to Chapter 1; and Kristen Weatherby (International Consultant), who led the work on Chapter 5. Short biographies of all members of the OECD review team are provided in Annex B. The OECD review team is grateful for guidance from Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, and Paulo Santiago, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division. Jan Maarse, Marco Kools, Shivi Chandra, Samo Varsik, Abigail Sageev, Marieke Vandeweyer and members of the OECD Digitalisation Cluster provided valuable advice and feedback during the review process. The team is also grateful to Christina Mitrakos, who provided invaluable administrative support, as well as Daiana Torres Lima, who supported the report’s final preparation, and Sophie Limoges, who co-ordinated the report’s publication.
The Netherlands’ involvement in the OECD review was co-ordinated by OCW and the OECD review team is grateful for the support of its staff throughout the review process. The review was co-ordinated, at different points, by Elma Espa-Dujso, Merel van Hulsen, Arjwan Al-Fayle and Thom Wittebrood, with support from Pepijn Burger. Their commitment and efforts were critical to the success of the review process. The OECD team would also like to thank all those who contributed to the preparation of the background report, which provided invaluable information to prepare the review visit, and those who reviewed and provided feedback on drafts of the review report. In particular, the team is grateful to the many individuals who participated in the review visit interviews and who generously shared their time, views, experience and knowledge with the review team. This included officials of various ministries and central agencies, representatives of stakeholders, local authorities, and social partners, as well as school leaders, teachers, parents and students.
The support of the European Commission (EC) for the OECD Review of Digital Education Policy in the Netherlands is gratefully acknowledged. The EC provided financial support from the Erasmus+ programme to co-finance the review. The EC was part of the planning process of the review and provided comments on drafts of this report. The involvement of the EC was co-ordinated by the Country Analysis Unit (A.2) of the Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) and the OECD review gratefully acknowledges the support of Livia Ruszthy, Aneta Sobotka, Miriam Toplanska and Susanne Conze.