Dijkgraaf asks students to stop using the terms high and low educated | Politics

This also includes the terms higher and secondary education. “We really have to stop that,” the minister writes. “Because one study is not above the other. All types of courses are equivalent, whether it is MBO, HBO or WO.”

There is a high demand for people with MBO and HBO training, especially in healthcare, education and technology. But in education, a race to the top has emerged where a ‘higher’ education gives status, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has noticed.

That has to change, says Dijkgraaf. He would therefore prefer to see the terms HBO and WO used as an alternative to higher education, or HBO and WO educated people instead of highly educated people.

Dijkgraaf’s open letter is supported by student organizations JOB MBO, ISO and LSVb and by the National Action Committee for Students (LAKS).

The minister says that legally changing the terms has “extremely major consequences” in terms of legislation and costs. That is why he wants to start changing daily language use, first of all in his own ministry. He calls on everyone to follow that example.

It is not the first time that a minister has asked to delete the terms from the language. GroenLinks also proposed in 2017 to no longer speak of highly and poorly educated. The then education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven also agreed with this.