The number of young people who are still at home despite compulsory education has grown by more than a third in one year. Outgoing education minister Mariëlle Paul finds this increase “very worrying”, she wrote in a letter to the Senate on Friday.
The figures are based on the 2022/2023 school year. At that time, 13,700 young people were at home for a long time while they were still required to attend school. This amounts to an increase of more than a third compared to the previous year.
According to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), the young people were not registered at an educational institution. They also had no exemption for this.
According to the ministry, the number of young people who were at home for more than three months also increased by 74 percent, to more than 5,500. According to OCW, the cause of the increase is, among other things, that municipalities are unable to arrange education for children of asylum seekers.
Last month, the Children’s Ombudsman demanded attention for children who do not go to school. “Some of these children receive home education,” Children’s Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer said at the time. “But a large part of them receive no education at all.”
According to the Ombudsman for Children, various children’s rights are therefore under pressure. Kalverboer mentioned various reasons why children do not go to school, such as serious physical or psychological problems, giftedness, bullying, discrimination and problems at home.
Minister Paul said in her letter to the Senate on Friday that she was working on solutions. This involves a “preventive absenteeism approach” and increasing partnerships between schools “to combat dropout and absenteeism when this occurs”.
Tags: Number young people compulsory school age staying home increased worryingly fast Domestic
