PHOTO: Minister Hon. Silveria Jacobs
Subsequent to recent inquiries regarding the implementation date for the New Dutch examination requirements, the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Hon. Silveria Jacobs hereby informs the general public that the implementation of the new Dutch examination requirements has been postponed and will not go into effect this year as had been planned.
The new implementation date for the new examination requirements will take place in the school year 2015-2016. By this date all HAVO and VWO schools within the Kingdom will have to be in compliance with the new requirements in order to be guaranteed acceptance to the college and universities in the Netherlands.
As the PSVE schools will also have to comply with this new requirement, additional measures in the form of sharpened examination trainings which also applies to the HAVO and VWO education levels will have to be devised in order to accommodate this change.
Effective August 1, 2015 the new regulations will go into effect for St. Maarten, which is the same date that they are scheduled to be implemented on the other islands within the Kingdom. As a result of this extension school boards will have the opportunity to further develop, execute and evaluate action plans geared towards improving the passing rate among our students in close collaboration with the Inspectorate of Education which is charged with monitoring the quality of education.
The Ministry believes that our students deserve the same chances as others within the Dutch Caribbean. We must use this opportunity as school boards, management, teachers, students and parents to raise the bar of our own expectations and show the world that we too can achieve at higher than average rates.