Bilingual education is mainly growing in VMBO
VMBO students more often receive bilingual education (tto) at their school. This school year there were 31 VMBO departments that offer tto. That is an increase of almost a quarter compared to the previous school year. The number of bilingual departments also increased in HAVO: by 8,6 percent to 63. Bilingual education is most common in VWO (120 departments).
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That is evident today research by Nuffic, the Dutch organization for internationalization in education. Pupils in bilingual education are offered at least half of the subjects in a foreign language.
Bilingual education was offered at 119 schools this school year, the report says. That number did not increase compared to the 2016-2017 school year. It does appear that schools have expanded their offerings to other levels. This is especially the case with VMBO and HAVO.
A total of 36.254 pupils are enrolled in bilingual education this school year. Most of these, almost 28 thousand students, are pre-university students. Just over five thousand students are in HAVO and 3.100 are VMBO students.
Declaration
'This strong growth in HAVO and VMBO can be explained by the success that bilingual education has had in VWO', says Meine Stoker, chair of the national network for bilingual education at the website of Nuffic. Schools often start with bilingual education in their VWO department and - if successful - expand it to other departments, says Stoker. 'A good command of English is becoming important in more and more professions, not only for academics. Think of trade, tourism, but also industry, healthcare or catering. '
Most tto schools are located in the province of Zeeland: a quarter of the schools offer tto there. In South Holland, Limburg and Brabant, that percentage is around 20. Flevoland has the fewest tto schools, at 4 percent.
Opportunities
The government's advisory body, the Education Council, released in May 2016 a report out about internationalization. In it, the council states that secondary schools mainly focus on bilingual education in pre-university education. The council warned that this leads to unequal opportunities between students from different school types.
