Education at a Glance is the authoritative source of information on the state of education worldwide. It offers comprehensive data on the structure, financing, and performance of education systems across OECD countries and partner economies. This publication features more than 100 charts and tables that present key insights into the output of educational institutions, the impact of learning across countries, access and participation in education, financial investment in education, and the roles of teachers and school organisation. This country note provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in the Netherlands. In line with this year’s thematic focus, it focus on teacher shortages while also covering other parts of the education system.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 evaluates what students know and can do in science, reading, mathematics and computational problem-solving, assessing how effectively they can apply their knowledge to real-world challenges. The assessment also explores a range of broader competencies, attitudes and behaviours, including curiosity, perseverance and the use of artificial intelligence. PISA results provide valuable insights into the quality and equity of learning outcomes around the world, enabling educators and policymakers to learn from each other’s policies and practices. This country note provides a country-specific overview of the Netherlands.

Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have been among the OECD countries with the strongest growth in international student enrolment over the last decade. International students have significantly contributed to enrolment growth, shaped campus life and, in some countries, institutional finances. This report examines the journey and challenges of international students, from choosing where and what to study and obtaining a study visa/permit, to adapting academically, finding housing, integrating into local communities, progressing in their studies and navigating post-graduation pathways. After strong growth through the 2010s and a rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic, international student mobility is entering a more uncertain phase, with some countries tightening policies while others continue to expand international enrolment. By comparing six major OECD study destinations, the report highlights both shared challenges and emerging policy responses. It provides timely evidence on trends, challenges and policy responses related to international student enrolment at a time of growing public and policy attention. It is relevant for policymakers, higher education institutions and other stakeholders.

The OECD Review of Digital Education Policy in the Netherlands offers an independent analysis of strengths and challenges related to digital education in Dutch schools. It was carried out as part of the OECD project Resourcing School Education: Policies for the Digital Transformation of Education and Future-Readiness of Teachers. The report describes and assesses the system from an international perspective and proposes policy options to guide future reforms. The analysis covers primary and secondary education, focussing on digital education policies concerning the following topics: i) governance and system-level strategy, ii) funding and procurement; iii) the EdTech and education materials markets; iv) capacity building and the future roles of teachers, and v) the curriculum framework, assessments and school evaluations. This report aims to inform education authorities and stakeholders in the Netherlands as well as other countries looking to develop a system-level policy environment that enables schools to achieve excellence and equity in the digital age.

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the world’s largest survey of teachers and principals. In 2024, educators from 55 education systems provided information about what they do and how they are doing. They explain if and how they use artificial intelligence, why they became teachers and if they wish to continue teaching. Governments use data from TALIS to make policies that improve teaching and learning conditions in their schools.

The Survey of Adult Skills offers unique insights on adults’ proficiency in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving. These skills are crucial for both personal and societal success, and form the foundation for continuous learning and innovation. In 2022-23, the survey assessed adults aged 16-65 in 31 countries and economies. By comparing results over time and with those of other participating countries and economies, participants can track the skill levels of its adult population, pinpoint barriers to skill development and use, and craft effective policies to address these challenges.

This report takes the reader into the lives of young people in Finland, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands and Portugal to explore the question: how do 15-year-olds learn English? Gone are the days when learners only encountered English for a couple of hours a week in a classroom. For today's teens, English is often the preferred language of communication in increasingly diverse online and offline communities. Yet relatively little is known internationally about how students learn English inside and outside school, and the resources available to help them. This report presents country findings from interviews with 15-year-olds, English-language teachers and school principals and wider background research, as well as a comparative chapter on key international insights. The report also explores how today's digital technologies can support learners to develop foreign language proficiency. These findings support the forthcoming PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment through which the OECD will generate comparable data on students’ proficiency in English in different countries and on the factors related to it.

This report, linked with the Digital Education Outlook 2023, provides an overview of 29 countries' (or jurisdictions') digital education ecosystem and governance. Each chapter covers the devolution of responsibilities within countries; how it affects digital education; what digital tools for management and teaching and learning are made publicly available to schools, teachers and students; how they are provided or procured; how countries ensure the security, privacy, equity and effectiveness of this digital ecosystem while keeping incentives for private education technology (EdTech) companies. The information and analysis are based on a survey on digital education infrastructure and governance, interviews with national and regional government officials as well as desk-based research. Providing for the first time a holistic view of 29 countries' and jurisdictions' digital education ecosystem and governance, this report will be of interest to policy makers, academics and education stakeholders interested in the digital transformation of education at home and internationally.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This country note provides a country-specific overview of the Netherlands.

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first international large-scale survey that provides a voice to teachers and school principals, who complete questionnaires about issues such as the professional development they have received; their teaching beliefs and practices; the assessment of their work and the feedback and recognition they receive; and various other school leadership, management and workplace issues. This note presents findings based on the reports of lower secondary teachers and their school leaders in mainstream public and private schools in the Netherlands.

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first international large-scale survey that provides a voice to teachers and school principals, who complete questionnaires about issues such as the professional development they have received; their teaching beliefs and practices; the assessment of their work and the feedback and recognition they receive; and various other school leadership, management and workplace issues. This note presents findings based on the reports of lower secondary teachers and their school leaders in mainstream public and private schools in the Netherlands.

The OECD project on benchmarking higher education system performance provides a comprehensive and empirically rich review of the higher education landscape across OECD countries, and how well higher education systems are performing in meeting their education, research and engagement responsibilities. This country note draws on the evidence base of the project to review the performance of the higher education system in the Netherlands. Its purpose is to assist the Netherlands in taking stock of where it stands in relation to other OECD member countries on different aspects of higher education and to provide input into national policy planning processes. The stocktaking exercise is supported with a scorecard of 45 indicators which highlights the Netherlands's position within the OECD. This note also includes a scenario exercise to support future policy planning in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands today is prosperous, but its future success is not assured. The Netherlands owes its success in no small part to actions it has taken in the past to develop a highly skilled population. Given the profound economic and social transformation that the Netherlands is currently undergoing, skills will be even more important for success in the future. The Dutch education system and the skills of the Dutch population are strong overall. Therefore many of the opportunities for further improving the skills outcomes of the Netherlands are to be found in areas of society where the government has more limited influence, such as the workplace and community. As a consequence, achieving the Netherlands' skills ambitions will require a whole-of-society approach. The OECD Skills Strategy Diagnostic Report: Netherlands identifies the following three skills priorities for the Netherlands - fostering more equitable skills outcomes, creating skills-intensive workplaces, and promoting a learning culture. These priorities were identified through the analysis of common themes that emerged from stakeholder perspectives on the most important skills challenges facing the Netherlands, and through the OECD's analysis of the nine skills challenges identified and examined in the report.

How can the Netherlands move its school system "from good to great"? This report draws on international experience to look at ways in which the strong Dutch school system might go further still on the path to excellence. Clearly the Dutch school system is one of the best in the OECD, as measured by PISA and PIAAC and is also equitable, with a very low proportion of poor performers. The report therefore proposes an incremental approach to reform, building on strengths while responding to some emerging challenges. The Netherlands should strengthen the quality of early childhood education and care, revisit policies related to early tracking with more objective testing and track decisions, and enhance the permeability of the system. It should develop the professionalism of teachers and school leaders through enhanced collective learning and working, while at the same time strengthening accountability and capacity in school boards. This report will be valuable not only for the Netherlands, but also to the many other education systems looking to raise their performance who are interested in the example of the Netherlands.

This Data Spotlight note on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) provides a summary of ECEC policy inputs, outputs and outcomes in the Netherlands. It uses data available within the OECD Secretariat - Education at a Glance, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the OECD Family Database - to make comparisons between the Netherlands' ECEC system and the systems in other OECD countries. This note complements the 2015 OECD publication, Starting Strong IV: Monitoring Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care.

The Netherlands has a split Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system with two different authorities in charge of ECEC: the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid) is responsible for children in childcare and playgroups up to the age of 4; and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen) is responsible for children aged between 4 and 6 in kindergartens (pre-primary education), as well as for all targeted ECEC programmes for disadvantaged children aged 2 to 4. There are no prescribed curricula in the Netherlands: each ECEC setting can develop and choose its own curriculum based on the children's needs and the objectives of the setting. Development goals/competencies guide the early education and care of children between the ages of 2.5 and 6 years.

Vocational education and training (VET) programmes are facing rapid change and intensifying challenges. How can employers and unions be engaged? How can workbased learning be used? How can teachers and trainers be effectively prepared? How should postsecondary programmes be structured? This country report on the Netherlands looks at these and other questions.

This policy profile on education in the Netherlands is part of the Education Policy Outlook series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across OECD countries. Building on the substantial comparative and sectorial policy knowledge base available within the OECD, the series also includes a biennial publication. It offers a comparative outlook on education policy by providing: a) analysis of individual countries' educational context, challenges and policies (education policy profiles) and of international trends and b) comparative insight on policies and reforms on selected topics.

How can student assessment, teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system evaluation bring about real gains in performance across a country's school system? This review report for the Netherlands provides, from an international perspective, an independent analysis of major issues facing the Dutch evaluation and assessment framework in education, current policy initiatives and possible future approaches. This series forms part of the OECD Review on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes.

This short country note recaps some Background on the 2014 OECD Measuring Innovation in Education report, the main Key report findings on innovation in education, the Report approach to measuring educational system innovation, along with the Netherlands' top five organisational education innovations for the 2003-2011 period and the Netherlands' top five pedagogic education innovations for the same interval.

This case study looks at the effectiveness of policy instruments aimed at reducing the number of underperforming primary schools in a system with a long tradition of school autonomy. It reviews relevant Dutch policy developments in education since 1998 and provides an in-depth analysis of five selected schools and their responsiveness to the policy instruments under study. Interviews with relevant stakeholders explore a key issue: what happens after a reform is introduced, and what are the elements that make it successful (or not)? The study suggests that there is not a linear cause and effect driving changes in educational performance of schools. For example, even the assignment of the label ‘very weak' can elicit a positive response from one school and a negative response from another, depending on the local context, history and staffing situation at the school. The same intervention can thus create a vicious cycle that triggers increasing deterioration of schools or a virtuous cycle that improves conditions to an extent that surpasses the original goal of the reform. This goes some way to explaining why some reform measures unintentionally backfire while others quickly (‘virally') spread over the system and set a virtuous cycle in motion that engages all parts of the system.

This spotlight report draws upon the OECD report Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools. The first section reproduces the executive summary of the report. The second section presents a snapshot of some variables on equity in education and school failure in the Netherlands based on the indicators used in the comparative report. It also outlines some recent policy developments and suggested policy options for the Netherlands, which are also informed by the Country Background Report prepared by the Netherlands.

International evidence shows marked average performance differences at age 15 between immigrant students and native Dutch students. National evidence reveals that the greatest challenges are for students with non-Western immigrant background. The Netherlands emphasises universal policies to improve education for disadvantaged students, with few policies targeting immigrant students specifically. There is scope to raise the quality of under-performing schools and enhance immigrant families' means to exercise school choice; strengthen the use of monitoring and evaluation practices within schools; support efforts to promote the enrolment of young children with non-Western immigrant background in high quality preschool and early childhood education; prioritise the recruitment of high quality teachers to schools in disadvantaged areas; prioritise educational and career support to students in vocational programmes; and enhance immigrant parent participation in official school/parent partnerships.

The report provides an overview of school leadership developments and issues in the Netherlands, as a contribution to the OECD's Improving School Leadership Activity. It discusses the national context of schooling, the features of the school system, school governance and leardership, the attractiveness of school leaders' roles, and professional learning of school leaders in the country.

The main purpose of the thematic review on adult learning is to understand adults' access and participation in education and training and to enhance policies and approaches to increase incentives for adults to undertake learning activities in OECD countries. It is a joint activity undertaken by the OECD Education Committee (EDC) and the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee (ELSAC) in response to the need to make lifelong learning a reality for all, to improve learning opportunities of low skilled and disadvantaged adults and to sustain and increase employability.

The report provides a true and accurate description of education policy in relation to the recruitment, development and retention of teachers in the Netherlands throughout the past decade. In the coming years, strategic policy in relation to teacher recruitment, development and retention will focus on three points: the implementation by schools of available instruments for institutional personnel policy; an increase in the number of people entering the education professions and guaranteeing the quality of staff, and adequate positioning of the main stakeholders on the labour.market.

This review covers children from birth to compulsory school age and includes the transition period into primary schooling. In order to examine thoroughly what children experience in the first years of life, the review has adopted a broad, holistic approach to study early childhood policy and provision. To that end, consideration has been given to the roles of families, communities and other environmental influences on children's early learning and development. Particular emphasis has been laid on aspects concerning quality, access and equity, with an emphasis on policy development in the following areas: regulations; staffing; programme content and implementation; family engagement and support; funding and financing.