Technology
2. Technology laws, policies, plans and regulations
2.1. Education technology legislative and policy framework
2.2. Technology infrastructures, technological capacity of schools and learning environments
2.3. Technology competencies of learners and teachers
3.1. Institutions in charge of technology in education and coordination mechanisms
1. Terminology
The term “information and communication technology (ICT)” is mentioned in many documents, for instance, the 2018 National Cybersecurity Agenda, the 2019 Dutch Digitisation Strategy 2.0, the 2021 Dutch Digitalisation Strategy, the 2022-2028 Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy; however, no specific definition is provided.
2. Technology laws, policies, plans and regulations
2.1. Education technology legislative and policy framework
Constitution and laws: There is no reference to technology in education in the 1969 Compulsory Education Act, the 1981 Primary Education Act, the 2002 Education Supervision Act, or the 2008 Constitution of the Netherlands.
The 2022 Secondary Education Act emphasises the importance of technology in education at secondary schools.
Policies, plans and strategies: The main objectives of the 2018 National Cybersecurity Agenda are to address cybercrime, protect critical information infrastructure, engage in international cooperation, establish a public-private partnership, an incident response capability and baseline security requirements, and strengthen training and education programmes.
With the 2019 Dutch Digitisation Strategy 2.0, the Government of the Netherlands aims to stimulate economic growth and address societal challenges that digitisation offers; to be broadly inclusive in terms of both the labour market and society; to safeguard privacy and monitor digital security carefully.
The 2021 Dutch Digitalisation Strategy aims to support the digital transition of the Netherlands in public sectors and to strengthen further privacy protection, cybersecurity, digital skills and fair competition.
In response to the query by the Lower House asking for a plan to support vulnerable people, the 2021 Digital Inclusion Action Plan aims to prevent exclusion and centres on four main objectives: making digital services easier to use for everyone; helping people to cope with digitisation; explaining the consequences of digitisation; collaborating with businesses and other organisations (public-private network).
With the vision of making the Netherlands a digitally secure nation, the 2022-2028 Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy has developed four main pillars/priorities concerning cyber resilience of the government, businesses and civil society organizations, safe and innovative digital products and services, countering cyber threats posed by states and criminals, cybersecurity labour market, education and public cyber resilience.
Digital competency frameworks: The national strategies and curricula aim to support the development of digital competence frameworks among both teachers and students. The efforts are in line with the DigCompEdu and DigComp 2.2 frameworks of the European Commission, as well as with the country's own strategic plans.
Furthermore, in 2022, the Netherlands has developed a framework for digital competence of lectures in higher education.
Changes occurred as a result of COVID-19: There have been no changes in laws, policies, plans and strategies as a result of COVID-19. However, in a letter to the House of Representatives, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science prioritised lessons for secondary school pupils and students at schools for secondary vocational education preparing for their leaving examinations; for pupils in the final year of primary school preparing for secondary school.
2.2. Technology infrastructures, technological capacity of schools and learning environments
2.2.1. Technology infrastructure and digital capacity of schools
Electricity: In mid-2021, the proposal for a new Energy Act (to replace the 1998 Electricity Act) based on the 2019 European Electricity Directive was sent to the House of Representatives to improve access to electricity in public places in the Netherlands. However, the 2021 proposal and the 1998 Electricity Act don’t make explicit reference to schools. No information has been found on a Universal Access Policy (UAP).
Computers and devices: According to the 2019 Dutch Digitisation Strategy 2.0, the purchasing cooperation, SIVON, has been launched, which develops, innovates and operates a stable ICT infrastructure with 83 participating school boards and organizes demand bundling, cooperation and knowledge exchange for the affiliated school boards. Twice a year, SIVON invites all affiliated school boards to join in the joint tendering of devices, such as Chromebooks, Windows, iPads, monitors, and Macs.
Internet connectivity: According to Article 9.1 of the 1998 Telecommunications Act (amended in 2021), an adequate broadband internet access service is available to every user, regardless of their geographical location.
Refining the objectives of the 2021 Dutch Digitalisation Strategy and supporting the 2025 EU Gigabit Society Targets, the 2018 Digital Connectivity Action Plan (Actieplan digitale connectiviteit) aims to provide high-quality internet connectivity that can serve a wide range of demands and is available at competitive prices anytime and everywhere. Furthermore, the 2018 Digital Connectivity Action Plan (Actieplan digitale connectiviteit) aims that all households should have the opportunity to access broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps and a vast majority should be taking advantage of 1 Gbps by 2023.
The 2022 Digital Economy Strategy (Strategie Digitale Economie) lists “expanding reliable and strong digital infrastructure” as one of the main pillars and intends to close the digital divide with 19,000 addresses in the outlying areas.
By connecting to the National Services Center (NDC), SIVON provides the affiliated school boards with a reliable and safe internet connection, which complies with European and Dutch legislation. Furthermore, in the period from 2019 to 2025, administrations can use a subsidy (awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science at the request of the Primary Education Council and Secondary Education Council) for a connection to the National Services Center (NDC).
2.2.2. Technology and learning environments
Funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Kennisnet (Knowledge net) Platform ensures that a) digital materials are searchable and that information chains are set up efficiently; b) school boards, school leaders, (ICT) managers and teachers benefit from the use of digital materials to organize education more efficiently and prepare digital skills education.
Rolled out at the national level in 2020 in collaboration with the Digital Society Alliance, the Doe je digiding! (Do your digital thing) educational programme is aimed at pre-vocational secondary education (VMBO)/senior secondary vocational education (MBO) and prepares young people who are about to turn 18.
Transposing the 2016 directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public authorities into the national context, the 2020 temporary Digital Accessibility Decree requires government websites and mobile applications to also be accessible to people with disabilities. According to the 2021 Dutch Digitisation Strategy, 93 physical digital government information points have now been opened across the Netherlands to support those who struggle to access digital government services. In addition, according to the 2021 Dutch Digitisation Strategy, at least 120 library organisations will have an information point.
The purchasing cooperation, SIVON, publishes the tendering of teaching materials for secondary education in cooperation with the participating school boards.
2.3. Technology competencies of learners and teachers
2.3.1. Learners
The importance of digital skills for learners is emphasized in many official documents.
According to the 2018 National Cybersecurity Agenda, digital skills, including media skills and cybersecurity are part of the curriculum for secondary education. The 2018 National Cybersecurity Agenda and the 2022-2028 Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy recognise the need to continuously renew and anticipate curricula developments at the primary level of education to combat digital risks for children. According to the 2022-2028 Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy, the Curriculum Development Foundation Netherlands (SLO) has been given the task of working with the teaching profession to develop concrete core objectives (to be submitted to the House of Representatives in a parliamentary bill) for basic skills, including cybersecurity skills, for both primary and secondary education.
The 2019 Dutch Digitisation Strategy 2.0 emphasises improving the digital skills of learners. Furthermore, according to the 2019 Dutch Digitisation Strategy 2.0, learners at 4,600 primary schools throughout the Netherlands are discovering digital innovations through a special edition of Donald Duck magazine and the accompanying teaching package.
The 2019 Strategic Action Plan for AI also focuses on improving learners’ AI-related skills and knowledge, such as digital skills, AI literacy, conceptual thinking and the ability to assess the implications of AI.
In the 2019 proposal of the Digital Curriculum for primary and lower secondary schools in the Netherlands, the four domains of digital skills are addressed within six themes: information literacy, media wisdom, basic ICT skills and computational thinking (solving issues or problems using digital technology).
Regarding developing media skills, the 2022 Government-wide Strategy for Effectively Tackling Disinformation considers the topics of misinformation and disinformation in study programmes and training courses, which are not only restricted to students and teachers but also to communication professionals within the national government.
According to the 1998 Expertise Centers Act and the 2022 Secondary Education Act, technology is one of the theoretical learning tracks provided at schools for secondary education. Furthermore, the 2022 Secondary Education Act includes information technology as an elective course as part of the theoretical learning tracks.
The Tel mee met Taal programme aims to support people who need help with reading, writing and digital skills.
According to the 2019-2024 Quality Agreements, students need to make optimum use of their educational environments, physical and digital alike, during their studies. However, the 2019-2024 Quality Agreements are directed mainly at the higher education levels.
In the Netherlands, there are also many initiatives for establishing or adapting training and data-related training and courses. According to the 2019 NL DIGITAAL: Data Agenda Government, universities, university colleges, higher vocational education and market parties offer training courses on data-driven policies and working with data. Furthermore, Rijksacademie voor Digitalisering en Informatisering Overheid (RADIO), the Governmental Academy for Digitalisation and Computerisation of the Government has developed a digital learning course on artificial intelligence, which is available to every civil servant in the Netherlands.
2.3.2. Teachers
The 2019 Dutch Digitisation Strategy 2.0 emphasises improving the digital skills of teachers and school leaders.
According to the 2019 proposal for the Digital Curriculum for primary and lower secondary schools in the Netherlands, teachers need to have sufficient knowledge of digital technology and associated digital and didactic skills.
According to the 2022 framework for digital competencies of lecturers in higher education, the four main dimensions of digital competencies are: designing, implementing and evaluating education; empowering students for a digital society; professional conduct as a lecturer; and digital literacy for lecturers.
According to the 2022-2028 Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy, teachers in primary and secondary education must possess digital skills with an emphasis on security so that they are capable (with support) of providing effective instruction in the digital age. Furthermore, the 2022-2028 Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy aims to produce a basic skills master plan to ensure that teachers are properly equipped to provide the best education in language, arithmetic/mathematics, citizenship and computer literacy.
The 2019-2024 Quality Agreements emphasise the need to improve the professional qualities of teachers, including keeping up to date with the most recent developments from a substantive, didactic, and digital perspective.
2.4. Cybersecurity and safety
2.4.1. Data privacy
Article 10 and Article 13 of the 2008 Constitution of the Netherlands guarantee the right to privacy and the 1881 Penal Code (Article 138a and Article 232) criminalises unauthorised data processing.
The 2008 Media Act provides provisions to protect the personal data of minors (under the age of sixteen) collected by media institutions.
Entered into force in 2016, the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Parliament and the European Council is a European Union law which became directly applicable law in all Member States of the European Union on 25 May 2018, following a two-year transition period, without requiring implementation by the EU Member States through national law. The 2016 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to protect the personal information of citizens and residents of EU member states. There are two tiers of penalties in case of regulation violation.
The 2018 Data Protection Act (Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens) governs and protects the processing of personal data in the Netherlands.
To implement the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Netherlands enacted the 2018 GDPR Implementation Act (Uitvoeringswet AVG), which follows a policy-neutral approach, meaning that the requirements of the 2018 Data Protection Act (Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens) are maintained insofar as possible under the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A pending legislative proposal, the Data Protection Collection Act (Verzamelwet gegevensbescherming), will affect the 2018 GDPR Implementation Act (Uitvoeringswet AVG) on a few specific topics. For example, the existing derogations under the 2018 GDPR Implementation Act (Uitvoeringswet AVG) for processing biometric data will be further conditioned.
As the primary legislation governing the telecommunications sector in the Netherlands, the 1998 Telecommunications Act (amended in 2021) implements (successive amendments of) many European Directives. For example, the 1998 Telecommunications Act protects telecommunications users' privacy and personal data (Article 11), transposing the 2002/58/EC Directive (the ePrivacy Directive) on Privacy and Electronic Communications(as amended).
Along with establishing a duty of care and notification for providers and essential services and digital service providers, the 2018 Network and Information Systems Security Act (Wet beveiliging netwerk- en informatiesystemen (Wbni)) also provides some provisions (Article 5) to protect citizens’ data and privacy.
However, the above-mentioned legal instruments do not explicitly mention data privacy and protection from the use of technology in education.
Other than legislation, the Netherlands implements various measures to inform the public about using the Internet safely. For instance, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) runs information campaigns highlighting the internet risks. One of these campaigns is called Alert Online. Set up by the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Dcypher platform unites researchers, lecturers, producers, users and policymakers in the Netherlands to improve knowledge about and expertise in cybersecurity. The click-and-tick Veilig online (Safe online) module was launched in 2020 to promote the safe use of the internet.
With the 2019 NL DIGITAAL: Data Agenda Government, the Government of Netherlands outlines its vision for improving data sharing between individual government agencies and data sharing between the Government of Netherlands and commercial parties. The Government of Netherlands has formulated three key pillars to this end: raising the data governance standards, achieving greater yields from available data, and sharing safe and trustworthy data between government agencies, businesses and citizens.
Together with the Kennisnet (Knowledge net) Platform, SIVON helps school boards to shape schools’ information security and privacy services, such as data protection impact assessment (DPIA), risk management, pen testing, vulnerability scanning and cybersecurity insurance.
2.4.2. Online abuse and cyberbullying
The Netherlands does not have a cyberbullying law. Article 4.1a of the 2008 Media Act aims to protect young people from harmful content by preventing the accessibility of needless violence and pornography materials, available through audio-visual media offerings to minors (under the age of sixteen). However, the 2008 Media Act does not explicitly prevent and respond to online abuse and cyberbullying of students.
Ensuring the coordination of anti-bullying policy at schools is mentioned in Article 4 of the 1981 Primary Education Act and Article 3 of the 2022 Secondary Education Act. Furthermore, the 1981 Primary Education Act and the 2022 Secondary Education Act provide provisions for reporting child abuse; however, the 1981 Primary Education Act and the 2022 Secondary Education Act do not explicitly mention online abuse and cyberbullying of students. Article 6 of the 2002 Education Supervision Act provides the necessary steps confidential inspectors need to take to work with/for education participants who are victims of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, physical violence, psychological violence, discrimination or radicalization.
3. Governance
3.1. Institutions in charge of technology in education and coordination mechanisms
Falling under the authority of the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV), the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is responsible for overseeing digital security in the Netherlands. One of its main tasks is to make the Netherlands more resistant to internet crime.
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is supporting the initiative to help people consciously adapt to technological changes while retaining their personal autonomy, human dignity and privacy.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in 2021, the Foundation for Curriculum Development (SLO), with the Ministry, is responsible for updating education programs for various subjects. These subjects include Dutch, arithmetic and mathematics, citizenship and digital literacy. In 2022, the Foundation for Curriculum Development (SLO) submitted a letter to the House of Representatives of the Netherlands to include a basic digital skills master plan.
According to the 2018 Network and Information Systems Security Act (Wet beveiliging netwerk- en informatiesystemen (Wbni)), the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) are responsible for the digital infrastructure in the Netherlands.
From 2019, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations will participate in the Tel mee met Taal programme.
3.2. Roles of schools
No specific responsibilities of schools with respect to the use of specific devices such as mobile phones or tablets are defined in current laws and policies. The responsibility of determining policies regarding student use of mobile devices is on individual schools. According to the organisation Parents & Education, most schools already have in place some sort of cellphone ban or restriction.
From January 1, 2024, Dutch classrooms will have strict regulations to significantly restrict the use of cell phones, tablets, and smartwatches in class in order to minimize distractions during lessons.
On November 7, 2023, the Dutch government announced plans to extend the ban on mobile phones in classrooms to include primary and special schools. The new guidelines, set to begin in the next school year, will not be formalized into law but will be implemented based on discussions with educators, parents, and students. While the PO-raad, representing primary schools, supports the ban, exceptions will be allowed for medical needs and educational purposes, such as interactive quizzes or digital literacy lessons.
