Netherlands’ €2 Billion Investment in Reading and Math Fails to Deliver Results
In the Netherlands, it has emerged that the €2 billion in public funding allocated since 2022 to halt the decline in students’ reading and mathematics skills has not led to any measurable improvement in student achievement. An evaluation report published by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) has raised serious questions about the government’s much-anticipated subsidy program aimed at “improving basic skills.”
The government had provided billions of euros in additional support to schools in an effort to reverse declining reading and math performance in international assessments. In particular, it aimed to fully close learning gaps in vocational secondary education (vmbo) by 2028. However, according to CPB’s analysis, spending to date has shown no “systematic effect” on students’ exam results, graduation rates, or grade progression.
The report notes that even schools receiving subsidies since 2022 have not demonstrated significant gains in academic performance. In secondary education, grades in mathematics and Dutch have not improved, nor have grade repetition rates declined. Despite prioritizing schools with the greatest learning losses in the second round of subsidies, no “reliable effect” was identified in the first year of implementation.
Recent PISA findings further underscore the challenge: nearly one-third of 15-year-olds in the Netherlands are at risk of leaving school with low literacy levels. Experts attribute this trend to factors such as smartphone use, shorter attention spans, an overloaded curriculum, and teacher shortages.