Dutch primary schools told to make more room for pupils’ home languages

THE HAGUE--Primary schools in the Netherlands are being encouraged to make greater use of the languages children speak at home, including Turkish, Polish, Arabic, English and regional languages, under new national curriculum standards for Dutch language education.

The updated core objectives, known as kerndoelen, became law in August and set out what pupils are expected to learn. Under the new approach, schools are expected to pay attention to multilingualism and the linguistic identity of pupils.

Teachers may also allow children to use their mother tongue to prepare for lessons or work through difficult material when doing so helps them understand the subject better.

The more practical use of home languages in classroom learning is being presented as guidance rather than a strict requirement, meaning schools will retain significant freedom in how they apply the standards.

The change reflects the increasingly multilingual nature of Dutch society. According to the Netherlands’ national statistics office CBS, about a quarter of people aged 15 and older mainly speak something other than standard Dutch at home. This includes dialects, regional languages such as Frisian and Limburgish, as well as languages including English, Turkish and Polish.

Language expert Joanneke Prenger, who advises on primary education, told current affairs programme Nieuwsuur that parents should speak with their children in the language they know best.

The position represents a shift from earlier advice that often encouraged families to use Dutch at home. Supporters of the new approach argue that children who develop a strong foundation in their first language may be better equipped to learn Dutch and other languages.

The policy has also drawn criticism at a time when the Netherlands continues to struggle with declining literacy and reading performance.

Dutch teacher Thomas Hendriks, who works with pupils facing language gaps in Amsterdam, told Nieuwsuur that the continuous introduction of new educational advice can appear to be “a whim, a trend.”

He also warned that allowing pupils to switch into languages a teacher does not understand can make it difficult to monitor classroom discussions.

The debate comes as the Netherlands continues efforts to improve basic Dutch literacy following years of declining reading scores. Despite substantial national spending aimed at strengthening language and mathematics skills, concerns remain over the number of young people leaving school without adequate reading and writing ability.

The more flexible classroom approach also contrasts with government policy in other areas, where stronger Dutch-language requirements are being pursued.

Ministers want to increase the Dutch language requirement for naturalisation to B1 and are also developing stricter enforcement of language requirements for certain welfare recipients who do not have sufficient command of Dutch.

For international and multilingual families, however, the new education standards represent a change in how schools are expected to view the languages children bring into the classroom. Rather than treating a home language as something that should automatically be discouraged, schools are being asked to recognise it as part of a pupil’s linguistic development.

Regional languages are included in the approach. Friesland, for example, already requires schools to actively teach Frisian.

Schools have until 2031 to fully incorporate the new national objectives into their teaching and, until then, will determine individually how extensively home languages are used in the classroom.

‍