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European Research Centre onMultilingualism and Language Learning

Frisian

The Frisian language in education in the Netherlands | 4th Edition |

| Regional dossiers series |

c/o Fryske Akademy

Doelestrjitte 8

P.O. Box 54

NL-8900 AB Ljouwert/Leeuwarden

The Netherlands

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W www.mercator-research.eu

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The Frisian language in educaTion in The neTherlands

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This document was published by the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning with financial support from the Fryske Akademy, the Province of Fryslân, and the municipality of Leeuwarden.

© Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, 2007

ISSN: 1570 – 12394th edition

The cover of this dossier changed with the reprint of 2008. With the reprint of 2010 some of the content was corrected or supplemented.

The contents of this dossier may be reproduced in print, except for commercial purposes, provided that the extract is proceeded by a complete reference to the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning.

This regional dossier was originally compiled by dr. Jehannes Ytsma († 2005). Dr. Alex R iemersma (Mercator Research Centre) and dr. Sikko de Jong (former inspector for primary schools in Fryslân) wrote this third update of the dossier in 2007. Unless otherwise stated data refer to the 2005-2006 school year.

From May 2010 onwards Tjallien Kalsbeek and Saskia Benedictus-van den Berg havebeen responsible for the publication of the Mercator Regional dossiers series.

Albanian; the Albanian language in education in ItalyAsturian; the Asturian language in education in SpainBasque; the Basque language in education in France (2nd ed.)Basque; the Basque language in education in Spain (2nd ed.)Breton; the Breton language in education in France (2nd ed.)Catalan; the Catalan language in education in France Catalan; the Catalan language in education in SpainCornish; the Cornish language in education in the UKCorsican; the Corsican language in education in France Croatian; the Croatian language in education in Austria Frisian; the Frisian language in education in the Netherlands (4th ed.)Gaelic; the Gaelic language in education in the UK Galician; the Galician language in education in Spain German; the German language in education in Alsace, France (2nd ed.)German; the German language in education in Belgium German; the German language in education in South Tyrol, Italy Hungarian; the Hungarian language in education in Slovakia Irish; the Irish language in education in Northern Ireland (2nd ed.)Irish; the Irish language in education in the Republic of Ireland Kashubian; the Kashubian language in education in Poland Ladin; the Ladin language in education in Italy Latgalian; the Latgalian language in education in LatviaLithuanian; the Lithuanian language in education in Poland Meänkieli and Sweden Finnish; the Finnic languages in education in Sweden North-Frisian; the North Frisian language in education in Germany (2nd ed.)Occitan; the Occitan language in education in France Polish; the Polish language in education in LithuaniaRomani and Beash; the Romani and Beash languages in education in Hungary Sami; the Sami language in education in Sweden Scots; the Scots language in education in Scotland Slovak; the Slovak language in education in Hungary Slovene; the Slovene language in education in Austria (2nd ed.)Slovene; the Slovene language in education in Italy (2nd ed.)Sorbian; the Sorbian language in education in Germany Swedish; the Swedish language in education in Finland Turkish; the Turkish language in education in Greece Ukrainian and Ruthenian; the Ukrainian and Ruthenian language in education in PolandVõro; the Võro language in education in EstoniaWelsh; the Welsh language in education in the UK

Contents

Glossary ..............................................................................2

Foreword ..............................................................................3

1 Introduction...........................................................5

2 Pre-schooleducation..........................................13

3 Primaryeducation..............................................18

4 Secondaryeducation..........................................22

5 Vocationaleducation..........................................26

6 Highereducation................................................28

7 Adulteducation...................................................33

8 Educationalresearch..........................................35

9 Prospects............................................................38

10 Summarystatistics.............................................40

EducationsystemintheNetherlands.....................................44Referencesandfurtherreading..............................................45Addresses ............................................................................52

Otherwebsitesonminoritylanguages...................................59

WhatcantheMercatorResearchCentreofferyou?..............61

ContentsContents 1Glossary2Foreword 31 Introduction52 Pre-schooleducation133 Primaryeducation 184 Secondaryeducation225 Vocationaleducation266 Highereducation 287 Adulteducation 338 Educationalresearch359 Prospects 3810Summarystatistics 40EducationSystemintheNetherlands 44Referencesandfurtherreading 45Addresses52Otherwebsitesonminoritylanguages 59WhatcantheMercatorResearchCentreofferyou? 60

Education and lEssEr usEd languagEs

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Glossary

BFTK BestjoersôfspraakFryskeTaalenKultuer(CovenantonFrisianLanguageandCulture)

CEDIN CentrumvoorEducatieveDienstverlening inNoordNederland(SchoolAdvisoryCentreinthenorthoftheNetherlands)

CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:Learning,Teaching,Assessment

CEVO Centrale Examencommissie Vaststelling Opgaven (CentralCommission for ExamQuestions) [merged into CvE togetherwithtwoothercommissionsOctober2009]

CITO Centraal InstituutvoorToetsontwikkeling(National Institute forEducationalAssessment)

CvE CollegevoorExamens(ExaminationsBoard)ECRML EuropeanCharterforRegionalorMinorityLanguagesFCPNM FrameworkConventionfortheProtectionofNationalMinoritiesHAVO Hoger Algemeen Voortgezet Onderwijs (General Secondary

Education)HBO HogerBeroepsonderwijs(HigherVocationalEducation&Poly-

technicEducation)MBO Middelbaar Beroepsonderwijs (Vocational Education and

Training)ROC RegionaalOpleidingencentrum(RegionalTrainingCentre)SLO StichtingLeerplanOntwikkeling (National Institute forCurricu-

lumDevelopment)VMBO Voorbereidend Middelbaar Beroepsonderwijs (Pre-Vocational

EducationandTraining)VWO Voorbereidend Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs (Pre-University

SecondaryEducation)

thE Frisian languagE in Education in thE nEthErlands

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Foreword

background The Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualismand Language Learning (formerly Mercator-Education) aimsat theacquisition,circulation,andapplicationofknowledge inthefieldofregionalandminoritylanguageeducation.Regionalorminoritylanguagesarelanguagesthatdifferfromtheofficiallanguageofthestatewheretheyarespokenandthataretra-ditionallyusedwithinagiventerritorybynationalsofthatstateformingagroupnumericallysmallerthantherestofthestate’spopulation.ForseveralyearsanimportantmeansfortheMer-catorResearchCentretoachievethegoalofknowledgeacqui-sition and circulation has been the Regional dossiers series.Thesuccessofthisseriesillustratesaneedfordocumentsstat-ingbrieflythemostessentialfeaturesoftheeducationsystemofregionswithanautochthonouslesserusedlanguage.

aim Regional dossiers aimat providing a concise description andbasicstatisticsaboutminoritylanguageeducationinaspecificregionofEurope.Aspectsthatareaddressedincludefeaturesoftheeducationsystem,recenteducationalpolicies,mainac-tors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well asquantitativeaspects,suchasthenumberofschools,teachers,pupils,andfinancial investments.Thiskindof informationcanserveseveralpurposesandcanberelevantfordifferenttargetgroups.

target group Policymakers, researchers, teachers,students,and journalistsmay use the information provided to assess developments inEuropean minority language schooling. They can also use aRegionaldossierasafirstorientationtowardsfurtherresearchorasasourceofideasforimprovingeducationalprovisionsintheirownregion.

link with In order to link these regional descriptions with those of na-tional education systems, the format of the regional dossiersfollows the format used by Eurydice, the information networkoneducation inEurope.Eurydiceprovides informationon the

Eurydice


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administration and structure of national education systems inthememberstatesoftheEuropeanUnion.

contents Theremainderofthisdossierconsistsofanintroductiontotheregionunderstudy,followedbysixsectionseachdealingwithaspecificleveloftheeducationsystem.Thesebriefdescriptionscontain factual information presented in a readily accessibleway.Sectionseighttotencoverresearch,prospects,andsum-mary statistics. For detailed information and political discus-sionsaboutlanguageuseatthevariouslevelsofeducation,thereaderisreferredtoothersourceswithalistofpublications.


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1 Introduction

language Frisian, orFrysk, is an autochthonousminority language cur-rently spoken in Fryslân, one of the twelve provinces of theNetherlands. Frisian is awesternGermanic language closelyrelated toDutch.Until thefifteenthcenturyFrisianwaswidelyusedinwritingaswellasspeechinanareamuchlargerthanthat of the current province, following the coastline of thepresent-day Netherlands and Germany. From the sixteenthcentury onwardsFrisianbecamea language thatwasalmostexclusively oral in usage, used in mainly rural areas. In thecourseofthenineteenthcenturytheFrisianlanguagegraduallygainedmoreaccessintootherareasoflife.Frisiandeveloped,independentlyfromDutch,intowhatisnowcalled‘NewFrisian’.OnlyinthetwentiethcenturytheFrisianlanguageregaineditspositioningovernment,jurisdiction,andeducation.TheFrisianlanguagemovementplayedan important role in this recovery(Gorter...etal.2001).

population TheNetherlandshasoversixteenmillion inhabitants;620,000ofwhomliveintheProvinceofFryslân.OfthoseinhabitantsofFryslân,94%understandsFrisian,74%canspeakit,65%isabletoreadit,and17%canwriteit.Morethanhalfofthepop-ulation(55%)statesFrisianastheirmothertongue.Moreover,76%ofthepopulationinFryslânconsidersitselftobeFrisian(Gorter&Jonkman,1995).

language status Nowadays, Frisian has an official status in the Netherlands.ItsspellinghasbeenstandardisedandFrisian isused insev-eral domains of Frisian society, thereby breaking through thedominanceofDutch.Apartfromdomainssuchasthejudiciary,publicadministration,radio,andtelevision,theFrisianlanguageisalsousedwithineducationinFryslân.In1997,thenameoftheprovinceFrieslandwasofficiallychangedintoFryslân.

National recognition isnotexpressed inaspecial law.Frisianlanguage policy on national level startedwith theCommissieFriese-Taalpolitiek (Commission Frisian-Language policy, also


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calledVanOmmenCommittee)of1969-1970thatproducedareportthatrecognisedtheresponsibilityofthenationalgovern-mentwith regard toFrisian (Ministerie vanCultuur,RecreatieenMaatschappelijkWerk,1970).An importantprincipleof thereportwas the recognition of Fryslân as a bilingual province.ThisreportisconsideredtheformalrecognitionofFrisianasthesecondofficiallanguageoftheNetherlands.However,theuseof theFrisian language incertaindomains isrestrictedclearlytotheprovinceofFryslân.TheVanOmmenCommitteestatedthat thecentralgovernmentshould focusonsafeguarding theidentityoftheFrisianlanguageandculture,incollaborationwiththeprovincialandmunicipalauthorities.Accordingtothereport,thismeansthatthenationalgovernmenthasthefunctionofre-solvingspecificproblemscausedbybilingualismintheFrisianculture(VanDijk,1987).Animmediateresultofthereportwasasmallsumofmoneyinthenationalbudgetthatwasintendedfororganisationswithkeyroles inmaintaining theFrisian lan-guage and culture. To date, the national government spends1.4millioneurosannually on theprotectionandpromotionoftheFrisianlanguageineducationand450,000eurosonFrisianculture.Thereportalsoresultedintheinitiativeofthenationalparliament to make Frisian a compulsory subject in primaryeducation.Unfortunately,thirtyyearslatertheresultsofthena-tional languagepolicyarelaggingbehindEuropeanstandards(DeJager&VanderMeer,2007).

Current language policy regarding the Frisian language isbasedon theBestjoersôfspraakFryskeTaalenKultuer (Cov-enantonFrisianLanguageandCulture;hereafter:BFTK),anagreementbetweentheprovincialandthecentralgovernment.Thiswasdrawnupin1989,renewedin1993,andredraftedin2001(2001-2010).ThisthirdeditionoftheBFTKwasstructuredaccording to part III of the EuropeanCharter for Regional orMinorityLanguages (hereafter:ECRML) (ECRML,1992).TheECRMLwassignedin1992andratifiedbytheDutchgovern-ment in 1996 with respect to Frisian. The ratification appliedto forty-eight concretemeasures from part III of the ECRML.In 2005 the Dutch government recognised the Frisians as a


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nationalminoritybymeansoftheratificationoftheFrameworkConventionfortheProtectionofNationalMinorities(hereafter:FCPNM)(FCPNM,1995).IntheBFTKthedesirabilityisstatedtomakeitpossibleforcitizens,localauthorities,organisations,and institutions to express themselves in Frisian. The BFTKalso states that both the provincial and the central govern-mentareresponsibleforpreservingandreinforcingtheFrisianlanguage and culture. Both the national government and theprovincial government provide financial resources in order tocreatesuitableconditionsforthispurpose.

Onseveraloccasions,variousFrisianorganisationshaveinsist-edon the improvementof the legalpositionofFrisian inedu-cationandthenecessityforanoverallandcoherentlanguagepolicy,buttodatethishasnotresultedinanoverallapproachin terms of language legislation. This desideratum has beenconfirmed in the recommendations to the Dutch governmentmadebytheCouncilofEuropeinbothreportsoftheCommit-teeofExpertsoftheECRMLconcerningtheforty-eightsignedundertakings from part III of the ECRML (Council of Europe,2001,2004).

status of The role of Frisian in primary education dates back to 1907whentheprovincialgovernmentofferedagranttosupportFri-sianlessonsafterregularschoolhours.Frisianwasthentaughtasanextra-curricularsubject.LegislativeprovisionsforFrisianonlybeganin1937withalterationstotheLager-Onderwijswet(PrimaryEducationAct)of1920.AlthoughFrisianwasnotspe-cificallymentioned, this didmake it possible to teach Frisianasaregional languageinthehighergradesduringDutch les-sons.However,nothingwasarrangedfortheuseofFrisianasamediumof instruction. In1950,nineprimaryschoolsbeganto experiment with bilingual education and in 1955 bilingualschoolsobtainedanactuallegalbasis.Frisianbecameanop-tionalsubjectthroughoutprimaryschool,andtheuseofFrisianasmedium of instructionwas allowed in the lower grades.Afurther legislative improvementwith regard toFrisianwases-tablishedin1974whenthePrimaryEducationActwasmodified

languageeducation


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yetagain.Frisianbecameanapprovedteachingmediuminallgrades and an obligatory school subject throughout primaryeducationasof1980.

In 1981, the Primary EducationAct was replaced by a com-pletelynewWetophetBasisonderwijsorWetophetPrimairOnderwijs(LawonPrimaryEducation;hereafter:WPO)intheNetherlandsfor thecreationofnewprimaryschoolsforpupilsbetween four and twelve years old (WPO entered into forcein1985).ThisWPOdidnotaffectthepositionofFrisian.Withregard to pre-school provisions the Wet Kinderopvang (LawonChildcare)wasenacted in2004.According to thisLawonChildcareFrisianhasgotthesamelegalpositioninpre-schoolprovisionsasinthePrimaryEducationActof1937.ThismeansthatFrisiancanbeusedonavoluntarybasis.

In 1988, Frisian was introduced in special education as anoptionalmediumof instruction.Withregardtosecondaryedu-cationFrisianhasbeenpermittedasafacultativesubjectfrom1937onwardsandasanoptionalexamsubject from1970. In1993Frisianbecameanobligatorysubjectinthelowergradesofsecondaryeducation.However, thepositionofFrisianasasubject remainsmarginal due to the limited time investment.Thelawsregardingvocationaleducationdonotexplicitlymen-tionFrisian.TherearenolegalprescriptionsconcerningFrisianinhighereducationeither.

education The educational system in Fryslân does not differ from thatin the rest of the Netherlands.An important characteristic istheprincipleof“freedomofeducation”,whichgivesparentsorinstitutions (e.g. denominational ones) the possibility to foundschoolsbasedonreligiousorspecialpedagogicalconvictions.ThisprincipleislaiddownintheGrondwetvoorhetKoninkrijkderNederlanden(DutchConstitution-article23)andfindsex-pressioninvirtuallyallfacetsoftheeducationalsystem.Ithasledtoasituationinwhichpublicandnon-public/privateinstitu-tions co-exist at all educational levels. In theory schools can

system


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choosetheirowneducationalmethodsandmaterialsasthereisnoformalnationalcurriculumorprescribedlearningmaterial.Inpractice,however,thewellbalancedsystemofofficialattain-ment targets or core goals, curriculum development, nationaltests at the end of primary schooling, and national exams attheendofsecondaryschoolingguaranteesthatstudentsofallschooltypespasstheirexamsatacomparativelevelthrough-outtheNetherlands.

private and Almost 70 % of all Dutch primary schools and nearly 80 %ofallDutchsecondaryschoolsare runbyprivate institutions,mostlyCatholicorProtestant.Bothsystemsofpublicandpri-vateschoolingarefully fundedbythestateandhavetomeetdetailedquantitativeandqualitativecriteria.Asaconsequence,both public and private schooling are considered equivalenttypesofeducation.

Although in theory the “freedom of education” principle couldleadtoagreatdiversityineducation,inpracticethedifferencesineducationalprocessesandcurriculumbetweenschoolsarenotverylarge.Thissimilarityofcurriculumispartlyduetotheintroduction of attainment targets for all school subjects. Thegovernment employs these targets (in existence since 1993,renewedin2006)toindicatetheminimumgoalsstudentsoughtto attain by the endof primary school and after two years ofsecondaryeducationrespectively.

bilingual In the pre-school sector a number of pre-school provisionsprovides immersion programmes while other provisions workbilingually.

In the period between the official recognition of ‘bilingualschooling’inFryslânin1955andtheintroductionofFrisianasan obligatory subject for all pupils in 1980, a limited numberof schools (25%at themost) provided bilingual schooling inthe lower gradesof primary school.As from1980all primaryschoolsinFryslânteachFrisianasasubjectwhile20%ofallschools use the languageasamediumof instruction for half

public

education forms


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adayoronedayperweek.Themost recentdevelopment isthe introduction of trilingual schooling in 1997 (Gorter, 2005;Ruijven, van&Ytsma,2008;Ytsma,2002).Within themodelof trilingual schoolingFrisianandDutchareprovidedassub-jectandmediumof instructiononanequal footing.English isaddedtothecurriculumingradesevenandeight(whenpupilsarebetweentenandtwelveyearsold),bothasasubjectandasmediumof instruction. In the school year2005-2006eightschoolshaveofficiallybeenrecognisedastrilingual.Accordingtotheambitionsoftheprovincial languagepolicy,thisnumberwillgrowoverthenextyearstoatleastfiftyin2012(ProvinsjeFryslân,2007).

In secondary education, Frisian is taught as a compulsorysubjectinthelowergradesduringonehourperweekonly.Thelanguage is rarely used as the officialmedium of instruction.However, currently further experiments are being developedfollowingthetrilingualprimaryschoolexperiments, thataimatcreatingatrilingualoptioninsomesecondaryschools.

administration Authoritiesareinvolvedineducationatcentral,provincial,andlocallevels,butprimaryresponsibilitylieswiththecentralgov-ernment that controls education by means of laws, decrees,and regulations, e.g. on compulsory subjects, examinations,or organisational aspects of education.The province of Frys-lândoesnothaveanydirect legislativeorexecutivepower ineducation. The central government subsidises Frisian learn-ingmaterials.Apart from that, the provincial administration ofFryslânhasdecidedtoinvesttenmillioneurosoveraperiodoffouryearsaimingattheimprovementofeducationinFryslâningeneralandtheimprovementofeducationinFrisianinparticu-lar(ProvinsjeFryslân,2007).

Specialfinancialgrantsareavailable forFrisian language les-

sonsinsecondaryeducation,aswellasforteachertrainingforFrisianasasubject.


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The school boards of private schools are formed by founda-tions or associations while municipal authorities regulate theboardsofpublicschools.Theactualcurriculum isdeterminedby suchcompetentauthoritiesandby individual schools.Thelocal authority’s tasks include planning and co-ordinating ac-commodation,facilities,andtheprovisionofmaterials,aswellasensuringthattheregulationsaslaiddownintherespectivelawsarefollowed.

inspection The central government’s Inspectie vanhetOnderwijs (DutchInspectorate of Education; hereafter: Inspectorate) monitorsregulationsandstandards,andthistaskissubdividedaccord-ing to the different educational sectors. The Inspectorate for-mallychecksthequalityofeducationbyvisitingschoolsandbyapprovingtheannualplanofactivitiesthatschoolsarerequiredtodraft.Moreover,theInspectorateinvestigatesproblemareasineducation.TheInspectoratereportstoandadvisestheMin-istervanOnderwijs,CultuurenWetenschap(MinisterofEduca-tion,CultureandScience;hereafter:MinisterofEducation).Theinspectorial reports on primary and secondary education areusedtodrafttheperiodicalreportsoftheDutchgovernmenttotheCouncilofEuropewithregardtotheECRML.

support TheNetherlandshasanumberofadvisorybodies in thefieldof education. Some have been set up to advise theMinisterofEducationoneducationalpolicywhileotherspredominantlysupport schools with curriculum development (SLO, StichtingLeerplanOntwikkeling–NationalInstituteforCurriculumDevel-opment)orbyproducingexams(CITO,CentraalInstituutvoorToetsontwikkeling –National Institute forEducationalAssess-ment). In their respectiveworkprogrammesaspecial task forFrisianisincluded.

There is a special advisory body for the support of Frisian ineducation.This is theTaalsintrumFrysk(Frisian languagede-partment) of the school counselling service knownasCEDIN(Centrum voor Educatieve Dienstverlening in Noord Neder-land-SchoolAdvisoryCentreinthenorthoftheNetherlands):

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a centre for educational advice for both public and privateschools,mainlyatprimarylevel.AspecifictaskofTaalsintrumFryskistodeveloplearningmaterials,especiallyforFrisianasa subject. Other tasks of Taalsintrum Frysk include advisingschools,expanding, theoretically,on the issueofbilingualism,providing educational radio and television programmes andmaterials,andgivingpracticalguidancetoschools.TaalsintrumFrysk ofCEDIN is also coordinating the network on trilingualprimaryeducation(seesection3).


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2 Pre-school education

target group Playgroupsaremeantforchildrenbetweentwo-and-a-halfandfour years old, their provision being limited to amaximum ofthreemornings/afternoonsaweek.Daycareisforchildrenfromzerotofouryearsoldandcanbeemployedfivedaysaweek.Since the 1980s national policy has aimed to expand theseprovisionsand to improve theirquality inorder tosupport theincreasingparticipationofwomeninthelabourmarket.

structure Playgroups are usually small with ten to thirty children, oneofficial leader, and one or more others on a voluntary basis.Theyareintendedtodeveloplanguageskills,creativeaptitude,and,inparticular,thesocialcapabilitiesofyoungchildren.Play-groups fall under the responsibility of themunicipal policy forwelfareandareusuallyprivatelyrun(sometimesbyvolunteers)andsubsidisedbythemunicipalities.

Daycarecentresarebiggerthanplaygroups(usuallymorethanfiftychildren)andincludemoregroupspercentre.Theydonotworkwithvolunteersandreceivesubsidiesfromthemunicipali-ties.Somedaycarecentresoperatecommerciallyanddonotreceivesubsidies(Boneschansker&LeRütte,2000).

Neither of these types of educational provision are part ofcompulsory education in theNetherlands.As far as financingis concerned parents have to pay a substantial contribution.Playgroupsanddaycarecentresoftenmergeintoassociationsatmunicipallevel.Anotherimportanttrendinsomepre-primaryschooleducationprogrammesistogearthemtowardsprimaryeducationasameansofcombatingeducationaldisadvantagesofimmigrantchildren,forexample.

In 1989 the Stifting Pjutteboartersplak (foundation for play-groups)wasfounded.ThisfoundationhasanexplicitlanguagepolicyandaimstoestablishaFrisian-speakingenvironmentforyoungchildren.The foundationsetsupFrisianspeakingplay-groups that accept both Frisian and Dutch-speaking children.


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The latterwillbe immersed inFrisian. In2003, the taskof theStiftingPjutteboartersplakwastakenoverbytheStiftingFrysk-taligeBerneopfang(FoundationonChildcareinFrisian),whichisresponsiblefortherunningofFrisianandbilingualplaygroups.

In2003, theProvincialGovernment issuedagrant topromotethe use of Frisian at playgroups and day care centres and toupgrade the educationalwork at pre-school level to a profes-sional level. The execution of this task was given to SintrumFrysktalige Berne-opfang (Frisian Childcare Centre; hereafter:SFBO),whichoperatesunderresponsibilityoftheStiftingFrysk-taligeBerneopfangandPartoerCMOFryslân(CentreforSocialDevelopmentinFryslân;hereafter:Partoer).In2007,basedonanevaluation, itwasdecided that theStiftingFrysktaligeBer-neopfangshouldbetheonlyinstitutethatisresponsiblefortheimplementationoflanguagepolicyinchildcareprovisions.

For the improvement of the professional quality of playgroupanddaycare leadersaquality frameworkhasbeendevelopedconsistingof fourelements: languagecommand, languageen-vironment, didactics, and language policy. Through guidanceandvisitationstheplaygroupsareencouragedto increasetheirqualitiesinthesefields.AsaresultofthisprocessSFBOissuescertificates to playgroups and day care centres that meet thesetofcriteria.Aplaygroupanddaycarecentre that receivesacertificateobtainsanextragrantfromtheprovincialgovernment.Theprojectwasevaluatedin2006.Themainconclusionswerethat theprofessional qualificationof theplaygroup leadershasincreasedgreatly,andthatthequalificationstructureistranspar-entandonalevelcomparablewithotherprovisionsinFryslân.On the basis of these results the provincial administration hasgranted a project (2007-2010) for Frisian medium pre-schoolprovisions(Boneschansker,2006;ProvinsjeFryslân,2007).

legislation Withregardtopre-schoolprovisionstheLawonChildcarewasenactedin2004.AccordingtothisLawonChildcareFrisianhasgot thesame legalposition inpre-schoolprovisionsas in thePrimaryEducationAct of 1937.Thismeans a facultative use


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of Frisian. However, according to the reports of the Commit-teeofExpertsoftheECRML(CouncilofEurope,2001,2004)thisregulationisnotinlinewiththeundertakingforpre-schooleducationinarticle8oftheECRMLthathasbeensignedbytheDutchgovernment.

language use Accordingtoastudyconcerningmorethan250playgroupsanddaycarecentresinFryslân,in1984(Duipmans,1984),61%ofthegroup leadershadFrisianas theirmother tongue,against60% in 2000.Without the implementation of anymeasures,however, the group leaders’ command of Frisian is expectedtodecreasesincearelationwasdiscoveredbetween theageof thegroup leadersand theiruseofFrisian: theyounger thegroup leaders, the lesser usage of Frisian (Boneschansker&LeRütte,2000).Therefore,theimplementationofpedagogicalmethodsinteachertrainingisconsiderednecessary.

On the contrary, the attitude of group leaders towards Frisiancanbeconsideredmorepositive thanbefore.However,a fairlypositiveattitudewith regard toFrisianhardlyguarantees thatalanguagechoiceexistsinactivitiesoreventsthatinvolvepeoplewith different language backgrounds. In their research, Bone-schanskerandLeRütte(2000)showedthat,withtheexceptionof theaforementionedFrisianplaygroups, theuseofFrisianatpre-schoolfacilitieshasnotchangedincomparisonto1984whenthe previous study on pre-school education and Frisian wascarriedout.Frisian ishardlyused inurbanplaygroupswhereasruralplaygroupscanberegardedasbilingual.TheresearchalsorevealedthatDutchisbeingusedfarmoreoftenthanFrisianingroup activities such as reading and singing. Frisian is mainlyusedinindividualcontactswithchildrenandparents.

Innon-Frisianplaygroupsnotmanygroupleaderswithacom-mand of Frisian are employed. In their initial training groupleadersonlylearnsomeverybasicpedagogicalskillsregardingmultilingualism. Currently the responsible vocational traininginstitutes (see section 5) are developing a new curriculumthatwill includeelementsofbilingualismandFrisianlanguage


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command.Inpreparationtothiscurriculumchange,theSFBOtemporarilyprovidesguestlessonsattheseinstitutes.

InspiteofthelackofanofficialFrisianlanguagepolicy,atten-tionisgiventoFrisianinamoreinformalway.MostplaygroupshavequitealotofFrisianmaterialandtheyvaluegrouplead-erswithacommandofFrisian,sincetheuseofFrisianmakeschildrenfeelateaseandstimulatestheirgeneraldevelopment.Supervisors,orpre-school teachers,areexpectedat theveryleasttounderstandFrisian,becausetheyhavetotakecareofboth Frisian-speaking andDutch-speaking children. It can beassumed that the degree towhich Frisian is actually used inplaygroupsdependsonthelinguisticbackgroundofthepopula-tionasthechildisfreetouseitsfirstlanguage.

In order to compensate for the lack of attention given to the

languageissueintheinitialtrainingandalsotopreparegroupleadersforoperatinginabilingualormultilingualenvironment,the SFBO organises in-service training courses with the em-phasisonFrisianandmultilingualismrespectively.

Since2003,anew initiativehasgrown intoasuccess:duringonespecialweekperyear,inalltwenty-sevenmunicipalitiesofthemainlandofFryslân,morethanfourhundredvolunteersareactively involved in readingaloud inFrisianatmore than250playgroupsanddaycarecentreswithover9,000children.ForquiteanumberofthesechildrenthisreadingaloudisthefirstofficialimmersionactivityintheFrisianlanguageandtheirfirstintroductionintotheFrisianculture.

teaching Severalorganisationsareinvolvedinthedevelopmentofteach-ing material. One of the most successful projects aimed atthe Frisian language development of pre-school children is theTomke-project,whichin1996wassetupasasharedprojectoftheAfûk(foundationforthepromotionoftheknowledgeanduseofFrisian),theBibliotheekserviceFryslân(PublicLibraryService),the SFBO, Taalsintrum Frysk of CEDIN, and the foundation ItFryskeBerneboek (FrisianChildren’sBook - foundation for the

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promotionof readingandwritingof children’sbooks inFrisian).TheTomke-projectissubsidisedbytheStichtingLezen(ReadingFoundation) and the provincial government. The Tomke-projectaims to improve the reading skills of pre-school children. TheTomke-projecthasadifferentthemeeveryyear,whichisworkedoutwithinthegroupthroughreadingaloud,rhymes,songs,andgames aimed at language development. Supporting activitiesin theTomke-project include informationevenings forallpeopleinvolved,publicationoftheTomkebook,aTVseries,activitiesinlibraries,andfinallyaninteractivewebsite.Overthelast10yearstheparticipationintheTomke-projecthasincreasedtoabout150(outofmorethan250)playgroupsanddaycarecentres.Thesuc-cessoftheTomke-projecthasresultedineditionsofTomkebooksinotherlanguages,namelyNorthFrisian(Germany),Papiamento(AntillesandAruba),aswellasinsomeLower-Saxondialects.

statistics In1973therewereaboutfortyplaygroupsinFryslân,concen-tratedmostlyinthelargertowns.By1984,therewereabouttwohundredplaygroups:ahugeincreasewithintenyears.In1994,asurveybyformerMercatorEducation(VanderGoot,Renke-ma&Stuijt) inFryslânrevealedthatatotalof226playgroupswereoperatingintwenty-nine(outofthirty-one)municipalities,containingaround7,500toddlers.BoneschanskerandLeRütte(2000)mention a total of about 225playgroupsandbetweentwenty-fiveandthirtydaycarecentresintheprovinceofFrys-lân.In2007therewereapproximatelythreehundredprovisionsinFryslân(playgroupsanddaycarecentres).

In1989afewplaygroupsstartedtheiractivitiesusingFrisianasmediumof instruction,supportedby theStiftingPjutteboarter-splak.ThenumberofplaygroupsanddaycarecentresusingFrisian as medium of instruction has increased over the lastyears. Nowadays SFBO covers fifty-five bilingual or Frisianplaygroupsandday care centres usingFrisian asmediumofinstruction, containing around 1,300 children. In the memo-randumBoppeslach (ProvinsjeFryslân, 2006) the ambition isstated torealisean increase in thisnumber tomore thanonehundredbytheendof2010.


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3 Primary education

target group Primary schools in the Netherlands are meant for pupils be-tweenfourandtwelveyearsold(gradesonetoeight).

structure An important feature of the educational structure in Fryslânaresmallschoolswithanaverageof125pupils.Intheschoolyear 2000-2001, 24% of the primary schools in Fryslân hadfewerthansixtypupils.Only3%oftheschoolshavemorethanthreehundredpupils.Therearemanyschoolswithcombinedclasses,inwhichoneteachertakescareoftwoormoregrades.Nevertheless, in the past twenty years many schools in theprovincehavemerged. In1988therewereabout572primaryschoolswhiletherewere492in2005.Thetotalnumberofpu-pilsremainedmuchthesame:62,000.

Special schoolsprovideeducation formentallyandphysicallyhandicappedchildrenandforchildrenwithlearningdisabilities.These schools, for children between three and eleven-twelveyears old and/or between twelve and twenty years old, arebetterequipped thanordinaryprimaryandsecondaryschoolsbecause,forinstance,theteacher-pupilratioismuchmorefa-vourable.Theintegrationofdisabledchildrenintotheordinaryschool system has been advocated and this has happenedmoreoftenoverthepastfewyears.

There are two distinct types of special education. First, therearespecialprimaryschoolsforchildrenwithlearningdifficulties(MoeilijkLerendeKinderen,MLK)andforchildrenwithlearningand behavioural difficulties (Leer- en Opvoedings Moeilijk-heden,LOM).MostoftheseschoolsareregulatedbytheWPOthusthelegalarrangementsforFrisianprimaryeducationapplytotheseschoolstoo.Second,thereisalawforspecialeduca-tion,theWetopdeExpertisecentra(hereafter:WEC,of1982,andamendedinlateryearsincluding1999)thatcoversschool-ingforchildrenwithspecialneeds.Thistypeofspecialeduca-tionconcernstheschoolsforchildrenwithseverelearningdif-ficulties(ZeerMoeilijkLerendeKinderen,ZMLK)andphysically


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handicappedchildren.AttheseschoolsFrisianmaybeusedasmediumof instructionandFrisiancanbe taughtasasubject.Inpractice,thepositionofFrisianinWECregulatedschoolsisevenweakerthanatregularschools.

legislation The currentWPO lists a number of subjects that all primaryschoolshavetoteachwithoutprescribingthenumberofhoursor how and what schools should teach. In the province ofFryslân,Frisianisanobligatorysubjectandmaybeusedasamediumof instruction.Schoolsmayask forexemptionof thisobligationfromtheprovincialgovernment.Onlya fewschoolsareexempted.However,6%ofallprimaryschoolsdonotof-ferFrisian lessonsat all (Inspectie vanhetOnderwijs, 2006).AccordingtotheevaluationoftheCommitteeofExpertsoftheECRML (Council ofEurope, 2004) theDutch legal provisionsin this respect are not consistent with the signed undertak-ingsconcerningFrisian inprimaryschooling inarticle8of theECRML. The Committee of Experts of the ECRML consid-ers the time investment of only forty-five minutes per weekintolerable.

In1993, theMinisterofEducationdefinedkerndoelen (attain-ment targets) for theprescribedsubjects.These targetsweremodifiedtosomeextentin2006.ThenewlyformulatedtargetsaremoreinlinewitheducationalpracticewithrespecttoFrisianasafirstandasasecondlanguage.

Teachers’ qualification for Frisian is prescribed officially intheWPO,but inpractice the teacher trainingcollegesare re-sponsible for theactualcontentand theexaminations for thisqualification.

language use A study by the Inspectorate (Inspectie van het Onderwijs,2006)hasshownthatthemajorityofprimaryschoolsinFryslânspendsthirty-sixtyminutesononelessonofFrisianperweek.Therefore,timedevotedtoFrisianislimited.Thissituationhasbeenthesameforthelastdecadeandistheresultofagradualprocessthathasbeenunderwaysincethelegislationof1955.


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ThepositionofFrisianasamediumofinstructionisalsomod-est.TheInspectoratereportrevealsthatonly15-20%ofprima-ryschoolsregularlyuseFrisianasmediumofinstructioninsofaras ‘worldstudies’and ‘arts’areconcerned(ingrades three toeight).TaalsintrumFryskofCEDIN is currently promoting theapproachofhalfadayofFrisianasmediumofinstruction.

Intheschoolyear1997-1998,sevenprimaryschoolsinFryslânstartedanexperimentwithatrilingualschoolmodelwithDutch,Frisian andEnglish (Ytsma, 2000;Gorter, 2005).The experi-mentalperiodhasnowfinished,andthetrilingualapproachwillbecontinuedinanetworkinwhichmoreschoolsareinvolved.Theultimategoal is toestablishfullbilingualismasfarasFri-sianandDutchareconcerned.RegardingEnglish, thegoal isforcommunicativeabilitytobeonabasicandfunctionallinguis-tical level.Toattain thesegoals, the three languagesarenotonlybeingtaughtassubjects,butarealsobeingusedasmediaofinstruction.Intheory,ingradesonetosix,50%ofteachingtimeisinFrisianand50%inDutch.Ingradessevenandeight,thedivisionofteachingtimeis40%Frisian,40%Dutch,and20%English. In practice, however, theexperimental schoolsweremoreflexiblewithregardtothedivisionoftime.Theywillcontinuethisflexibility.Whathasbeenexpectedonthebasisofresearchelsewhere,hasbeenconfirmed in thisproject:moretime investment in Frisian as a subject and as a medium ofinstructiondoesnothaveanynegativeeffectonthelanguagecommandinthedominantlanguage(Dutch).Inotherwords:attheendofprimaryschoolchildrenshowabalancedbilingual-ism. Furthermore, the earlier introduction of English is underconsideration,alsobecausetheBesluitvernieuwdekerndoelenWPO of 2006 (decision on new attainment targets) changedtheWPOandenabledtheearlyintroductionofEnglishasfromgradefive.

teaching In 2006, a new Frisian-language teaching method, Studio F,was completed and introduced at primary level. Compared tothe former teachingmaterials the newmethod is much betteradaptedandstructuredforbeingusedinclasseswithpupilsfrom

material


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different linguistic backgrounds.ThemethodStudioF containsmoreandbetterpractical teachingmethodsandexampleswithregard to thedifferentiationof goalswithin the classroom.Themethod is aimed at the longitudinal teaching of the languageandlearningthroughusingFrisianasmediumofinstruction.ThemethodcombinesreadingandwritingskillswithschooltelevisionandITtasks.Startingfromtheperspectivethatallpupils intheclassroom, Frisianmother-tongue speakers aswell as secondlanguage learners followFrisian lessonsat thesame timeandusethesameteachingmaterials,theselessonsarestructuredinsuchawaythatmother-tonguespeakerscanachievethehighestlevelsoftheattainmenttargets,whilethesecondlanguagelearn-ersworktowardsalowerleveloflanguageskills.Fortunately,thefinal resultof thisapproach is thatpupilsareworking together,andinaccordancewiththeircapacitiesandlanguageskills.Thisapproach also contributes to the social integration of Frisianspeakingchildrenandsecondlanguagespeakers.

Alongside with the Studio F method, the monthly magazineLinKk isbeing issued incooperationwithFrisianschool radioandtelevisionprogrammes.Itistobeexpected,thatacertainnumberofprimaryschoolswillcontinuetolimittheirFrisianles-sonstowatchingtheFrisianschooltelevisionprogrammesandusingthismagazineLinKkastheonlyteachingmaterial.

statistics Intheschoolyear2005-2006,therewereabout62,000childrenattending the 492 primary schools in Fryslân covered by theWPO.AnumberoftenspecialschoolswerecoveredundertheWEC.

Fewschools innon-Frisianspeakingareas inFryslân (mainlytheFrisian islands)areexempt fromhavingtoprovideFrisianlessons. In the Inspectorate report (Inspectie van hetOnder-wijs,2006)itismentionedthat67%ofprimaryschoolteachersare qualified to teachFrisian. 21%of all Frisian lessonsaretaughtbyunqualifiedteachers.Thetendencyis,however,thatyounger teachers or teachers who have not grown up bilin-guallythemselves,aremoreoftenunqualified.


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4 Secondary education

target group SecondaryeducationintheNetherlandsismeantforstudentsbetweentwelveandsixteen-eighteenyearsold.VoorbereidendMiddelbaar Beroepsonderwijs (Pre-Vocational Education andTraining; hereafter:VMBO) lasts four years,HogerAlgemeenVoortgezetOnderwijs (General Secondary Education; hereaf-ter: HAVO) five years, and Voorbereidend WetenschappelijkOnderwijs (Pre-University Secondary Education; hereafter:VWO)sixyears.Obligatoryschoolattendanceendsattheageofeighteen.

structure Secondaryeducationisdividedintothreedifferentlevels:VWO,HAVOandVMBO.Compulsoryeducationlastsuntiltheageofeighteen. In 1993 a period ofbasisvorming (basic education)wasintroducedforallthesetypesofsecondaryeducation.Thebasiceducationperiod lasts for two to threeyearsdependingon the school curriculum. It implies a common curriculum forall pupils, including general and technical subjects, althoughschools can differ considerably from each other in the actualorganisationofthecurriculum.

legislation Themodificationin1993oftheWetophetVoortgezetOnderwi-js(1963;LawonSecondaryEducation;hereafter:WVO)meantthatFrisianbecameanobligatorysubject in the lowergradesof secondary education (article 11b). Since the modificationof2006, theProvincialGovernmentofFryslânhas thepowerto grant exemption from this obligation to individual schools(article11e).Asarulethisexemptionisgivenforoneyear,butschoolsmayaskforexemptionfromthisobligationeveryyear.

Attainment targetsare set for all school subjects in the lowergrades of secondary education. Frisian is an optional examsubject in the higher grades of all three types of secondaryeducation.

language use NotallsecondaryschoolshaveasyetimplementedFrisianintotheircurriculum.Theattainment targets forFrisianhavebeen


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officially determined in educational legislation as from 2006.The new attainment targets for the lower grades differentiatebetweenstudentswithFrisianastheirmother-tongueandthosewhospeakFrisianasasecond language.TheDutchgovern-menthassupportedtheimplementationofFrisianfinancially.AcurriculummodelandlearningmaterialshavebeendevelopedforFrisianasa subject in the lower grades.The survey con-ducted by the Inspectorate showed that, five years after theimplementationofFrisianinbasiceducation,Frisianhadbeendeveloped only poorly as a school subject (Inspectie van hetOnderwijs, 1999). Another five years later, the situation hashardlybeenimproved.Morethanathirdofsecondaryschoolsin the province do not offer Frisian lessons to their students.The schools that do offer Frisian lessons mostly do so onlyingradeone forall studentsand ingrade twoasanoptionalsubject.Thosestudentswhoopt forFrisianasanexamsub-ject takemore lessons in thetwo lastgrades. Inpractice, thismeansthatallpupilsattendfortyFrisianlessonsinthefirstyearof theirsecondaryeducationandonlya few inhighergrades.Giventhesefigures it isobviousthatstudentscannotachievethe attainment targets for Frisian that are prescribed for thelowergradesofsecondaryeducation.

Despitepositive initiativeswith respect to thedevelopmentofthecurriculum,teachingmaterials,andtheuseofIT-methods,there is still no clear concept at school level of Frisian as asubjectandtheuseofFrisianasamediumofinstruction.Mostteachersdonotdifferentiatebetweenmother-tonguespeakersand second language learners, and there is no exchange ofinformation between primary and secondary schools on thecurriculum, teachingmethods, or resultsof language learning(InspectievanhetOnderwijs,2006).

National exams are composed by the CITO on behalf of theDutchMinistryofEducation.Thismeans that thecompositionand approval of exams is not the responsibility of schools orregionalauthorities.CITOhasset theexamsforFrisiansince1973, even when the number of students is very low. In the


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schoolyear2004-2005,intotalseventy-threestudentstookanexamforFrisianinVMBO,HAVO,orVWO.Theseexamsareapproved by the governmental Centrale ExamencommissieVaststelling Opgaven (Central Commission for Exam Ques-tions; hereafter: CEVO). CEVO and two other commissionsmerged into theCollegevoorExamens (ExaminationsBoard;hereafter:CvE)inOctober2009.

ItispermittedtoteachusingFrisianasmediumofinstructioninall types of secondary education. However, the use of Frisianasmediumofinstructionisrare.In1999,69%ofallsecondaryschoolsstatedthattheydidnotuseFrisianasaformalteachinglanguage,30%ofschoolsdidsoincidentallyand1%reportedusingFrisianasmediumofinstructiononaregularbasis(Inspec-tievanhetOnderwijs,1999).Thissituationhasnotchanged.

Basedontheabovestatistics,itcanbeconcludedthattheposi-tionofFrisianasmediumofinstructionatsecondary-schoollev-elismarginal,andthattherecertainlyisnomonolingualFrisiansecondary education in Fryslân nor bilingual education withFrisianandDutchonanequal footing.TheCommitteeofEx-pertsoftheECRMLconcludedintheevaluationreportthatthesignedundertakingconcerningFrisian insecondaryeducationis not fulfilled. TheCouncil of Europe strongly recommendedtheDutchgovernmenttotakemeasuresfortheimprovementofFrisianinsecondaryeducation(CouncilofEurope,2004).

teaching In order to implement Frisian as a compulsory subject in thelowergradesofsecondaryeducation,anewmethodforFrisianlessons was developed with extra differentiation materials,a teachers guide, and special material for listening in 1993.Aftertenyears,however,thismethod,knownasFlotweiFrysk(Smoothly Frisian), has been replaced by a more modernone: Freemwurk (Framework). Thismethod explicitly aims atachieving the official key objectives, iswell structured for dif-ferentiation, and includes ITmethods of learning. FreemwurkhasbeendevelopedbyateamofteachersincooperationwithTaalsintrumFryskofCEDIN.

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Atthesametimenewteachingmaterialshavebeendevelopedforthehighestgradesofsecondaryeducation.Thesemethodshave been structured according to the exam programmes ofrespectivelyVMBO,HAVO,andVWO.All thesemethodscanbeusedtogetherwiththeFrisianschooltelevisionprogrammesand the monthly LinKk magazine as well as with assistanceof the electronic learning environment in Digischool (digitalschool).

statistics IntheprovinceofFryslân,thirtyschoolsprovidepre-universityeducation,generalsecondaryeducationand/orpre-vocationaleducationatfifty-eightlocations,involvingabout37,000pupils(InspectievanhetOnderwijs,2006).


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5 Vocational education

target group MiddelbaarBeroepsonderwijs(VocationalEducationandTrain-ing;hereafter:MBO)isaimedatstudentsbetweensixteenandnineteen years old, who have passed the exams of VMBO.MBOschoolsarealsoaccessibleforstudentswhohavecom-pleted thefirst four yearsofHAVO respectivelyVWOaswellas for adult studentswithout a diplomaof general secondaryeducation.

structure Vocationaleducationcovers three typesof vocational trainingforpupilsbetweensixteenandnineteenyearsold.TheseareMBO, apprenticeships, and learning and training provided inthe context of schemes for the unemployed. MBO is mostlyprovidedbyaRegionaalOpleidingencentrum(RegionalTrain-ingCentre; hereafter: ROC).There are twoROCs in Fryslân(FrieslandCollege andROC Friese Poort) that provideMBOand an Agricultural Training Centre (AOC Friesland). Thesethree schools offer a range of courses in the following sec-tors: technology/engineering, social services and health care,economics and administration, and agriculture. This sectionfocusesonMBOasthisinvolvesthemajorityofstudentsandisfull-time.

legislation AnewWetEducatieenBeroepsonderwijs(EducationandVo-cationalTrainingAct;hereafter:WEB),regulatingadulteduca-tionandvocationaltraining,cameintoeffectin1996.Itaimsatabetterintegrationofeducationalprovisionsandthedemandsofsociety,thelabourmarket,andindividuals.Themainconse-quenceoftheseregulationswastheestablishmentoftheROCsproviding a coherent structure for all forms of education andtraining.

language use In general, Frisian has no formal position in the curricula forvocationaleducationsinceFrisianisnotincludedinthenormaltimetable.However,withinagriculturaleducation,asectorwitharoundonethousandstudents,Frisianisregularlyusedasme-diumof instruction,andsometimesselfmadeFrisian learning


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materialsarealsoused.Moreover,thesestudentscanchooseFrisianasanoptionalpartoftheprogramme.

In the economics and administration sectors, Frisian can bechosen as a subject as part of the secretarial training pro-gramme. The social services and health care training pro-grammes have developed a module of multilingualism withsomeattention for Frisian. In thismodule students learn howtodealwithmultilingualism in their futurepositionasanurse,socialworker,ordaycareleader.Theschoolrecommendsnon-Frisianspeakingstudentstofollowalanguagecourse.ModulesforFrisianarebeingpreparedinco-operationwiththeAfûk,aspartofthetrainingcourseandasin-servicetraining.StudentswhohavetakenthismodulecanbeofferedanapprenticeshipinthedaycarecentresoftheSFBO.

teaching NoFrisianmaterialsarepublishedforvocationaleducation.

statistics Intheschoolyear2006-2007nearly22,000studentswereen-rolledinMBOinFryslân.

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6 Higher education

structure HighereducationincludesHogerBeroepsonderwijs(HigherVo-cationalEducation&PolytechnicEducation; hereafter:HBO),Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs (University Education; hereafter:University), and distance learning at higher educational levelthroughtheOpenUniversiteit(OpenUniversity;hereafter:OU).Three institutes forHBOare located inLjouwert/Leeuwarden,the capital of Fryslân: Stenden Hogeschool (former Chris-telijke Hogeschool Nederland - CHN), the NHL Hogeschool(formerNoordelijkeHogeschool Leeuwarden -NHL), and theHogeschool Van Hall Larenstein. The first two institutes of-fer a wide range of courses, including teacher training, hotelmanagement, public and business administration, technicalcourses,andnursing.TheHogeschoolVanHallLarensteinof-ferscoursesmainlyinthefieldofagricultureandenvironmentalmanagement.ThereisnouniversityinFryslân.However,thereisintensivecooperationbetweentheHBOinstitutesinFryslânand various universities in the Netherlands. The Rijksuniver-siteit Groningen (University ofGroningen) offers students thepossibility to take thefirstyearof the lawdegree inLjouwert/Leeuwarden, incooperationwith theNHLHogeschool.Hoge-schoolVanHallLarensteinoffersvariousstudiesandresearchopportunitiesincooperationwithWageningenUniversity.Inad-dition,threeresearchinstitutes,whichofferPhDpositions,arebasedinLjouwert/Leeuwarden:Wetsusforwatermanagement,theWaddenAcademiethatfocusesonallaspectsoftheWad-denSeaanditsislands,andtheFryskeAkademy,thescientificresearchandeducationalcentreforFryslânanditspeople,itslanguageanditsculture.

Full Bachelor andMaster degree-programmes in Frisian lan-guage and culture are only offered at the department FrieseTaalenCultuur(thedepartmentofFrisianLanguageandCul-ture)oftheUniversityofGroningen.Ateacher-trainingmaster’sdegree (120 ECTS) is also available there. TheOnderwijsin-stituut Neerlandistiek (Department of Dutch Studies of theUniversiteitvanAmsterdam-UniversityofAmsterdam)offersa


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fullminor(30ECTS)aswellassomemastercoursesinFrisianlanguageand literature. In theschool year2007-2008,fifteenstudentswereenrolled forFrisianasamain subject at theseuniversities.BesidesthatFrisiancanbetakenasanadditionalsubjectatUniversiteitLeiden(LeidenUniversity).

legislation HigherEducationintheNetherlandsisregulatedbytheWetophetHogerOnderwijsenWetenschappelijkOnderzoek(LawonHigher Education and Scientific Research; hereafter: WHW).ThereisadifferencebetweenHBOandUniversity:HBOedu-cationlastsfouryearsandresultsinabachelor’sdegree,whileUniversity lasts either three years, resulting in a bachelor’sdegree,orfouryearsresultinginamaster’sdegree.

language use DutcheducationallegislationdeclaresDutchtobethemediumofinstructioninhighereducation.Tertiaryinstitutesareobligedtomakea language regulation inwhichall exceptions to thisrule (e.g. Frisian or English as medium of instruction) arelaid down.The three Frisian institutes for higher professionaleducation have regulated the use of Frisian in variousways.Generally speaking, Frisian as medium of instruction is onlyusedpartlyinteachertraining.Inothercourses,themediumisDutchandonsomeoccasionsaforeignlanguageisused,e.g.theStendenHogeschoolInternationalHospitalityManagementusesEnglishforsomesubjects.Nevertheless,studentsinmostdisciplinesareallowedtowritethesesinFrisian,althoughthisrarelyhappens.

Atuniversitylevel,FrisianisusedasamediumofinstructionforFrisianstudiesonly.

teacher training TeachertrainingfortheprimarylevelisprovidedbytheStendenHogeschool and the NHL Hogeschool, while training for thesecondarylevelisprovidedbytheNHLHogeschool.

primary training Initial teacher training for primary school teachers is carried

outat teacher training institutesattached to theHBOs.These


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trainingcoursesforprimaryteacherstakefouryears.Itisalsopossibletoattendateacher-trainingcourseonapart-timeba-sis,inwhichcasethetotaldurationofthecourseislonger(uptosixyears).Teacher trainingat the institutes isorganised inlinewith an integratedmodel: the course contains both theo-reticalandpracticalaspectsofteaching.Studentsspendasub-stantialpartoftheirstudytimeatprimaryschoolsasatrainee.Inthistraineeshipalldidacticskillsandallsubjectsofeducationare integrated.Studentswhograduatefromateacher-traininginstitute acquire an HBO degree and may adopt the title ofbachelor.

As Frisian is a compulsory subject within Frisian primaryschools, Frisian as a subject is incorporated into the primarylevel teacher-training programme. Both HBOs are developinga common curriculum for Frisian as a subject as well as fortheuseofFrisianasamediumof instructionwithin their owninstitutes. During the first two years of their four-year trainingprogramme, studentsmust attend a Frisian language course.Duringthosetwoyears,thereareseparatestreamsforFrisianand non-Frisian speaking students. Frisian is optional in thethirdyear.Bycompletingthewholeprogramme,studentsobtaintheformalcertificatequalifyingthemtoteachFrisianatprimarylevel. The certificate is worth 9 ECTS for students from non-Frisianspeakinghomesand7ECTSforstudentswithFrisianasamother-tongue.MoststudentsateitheroftheHBOsobtaintherequiredcertificate,butthisdoesnotalwaysimplyafluentcom-mandoftheFrisianlanguage.Researchonreportedlanguageskillshasshownthat98%oftheprimaryteachersunderstandsFrisian,85%speaksFrisianwellorfluently,81%canreadthelanguagewellorfluently,and69%claimstobeabletowritesuf-ficiently,well,orfluentlyinFrisian(InspectievanhetOnderwijs,2006).TheInspectorate’ssurveyof2001revealedthat38%ofteachersatprimary levelwerenot (officially)qualified to teachFrisian(InspectievanhetOnderwijs,2001).Thispercentageisdecreasing,butyetasubstantialpartofFrisianprimaryschoolsalwayslacksadequatelyqualifiedteachers.


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secondary training Teacher training for thosewho intend to become teachers at

secondaryschoolsisdividedintotwolevels.Alevel-twocertifi-cateisrequiredtoteachatVMBOschoolsandingradesone-three of HAVO and VWO schools and a level-one certificateis needed for grades four-five/sixofHAVOandVWOand forHBOs. Both certificates are offered at the NHL Hogeschool;the level-twocertificatebothasa full-timeandasapart-timecourse.Once a level-two course has been successfully com-pleted,studentscanenrolinalevel-onecourse.Thelevel-onecourseisalsoaccessibleforpost-universitystudents.Thelevel-two course lasts four years, in addition the level-one courseanother threeyearsofpart timestudy.Eachstudyyear is theequivalentof60ECTS.

Thecurriculumofthelevel-onecourseisstructuredinasimilarwaytocoursesofotherschoollanguages(Dutch,English,Ger-man,FrenchandSpanish).Thestudycontentsaredividedintothe following sections: improving the student’s own languagecommand inallcompetenciesup to levelC1according to theCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages:Learning,Teaching,Assessment(CEFR);grammarandsyntax;literatureandyouth literature;historyofFryslân;and learningandtrainingofdidacticskills.Theinitialtrainingofdidacticskillsiscarriedoutinajoinedapproachwithotherschoolsubjects.

Studentsspendasubstantialpartoftheirstudytimeatschoolas a trainee: full-time students two weeks in the first year,three to fourdaysaweek for eightweeks in the secondandthird year, and half the school week during the whole of thefourthyear.Part-timestudentsspend60-80hoursatsecondaryschool in thesecondyearof theirstudyandanother120-140hoursinthethirdyear.

in-service training Differentinstitutionsareinvolvedinprovidingin-servicetraining

forFrisian.TheteachertraininginstitutesaswellasTaalsintrumFryskofCEDINallplayarole. In-servicetrainingcoursesare


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mainlyfocusedonthelanguagecompetenciesoftheteachers,aswellasonthedidacticaspectsofnewteachingmethods.

statistics In theschoolyear2006-2007thenumberofstudentsatHBOinFryslânwasapproximately17,000intotal:10,000attheNHLHogeschool, 5,000 at theStendenHogeschool, and 2,000 atHogeschoolVanHallLarenstein.Around1,500of thosewereinteachertrainingforprimaryeducationandaround2,000forsecondary education, for a large range of disciplines. In theschool year 2006-2007, fifteen students opted to qualify as ateacher forFrisian insecondaryeducation,ofwhichtwowerefull-timestudents.

ThenumberofstudentsofFrisianasamainsubjectattheuni-versitiesofGroningenandAmsterdamwasaroundfifteenintheschoolyear2006-2007. Inaddition,a fewdozenofuniversitystudentsofothersubjectstookacourseormoduleofFrisianaspartoftheircurriculum.


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7 Adult education

structure and ThetwoROCs,FrieslandCollegeandROCFriesePoort,bothalso provide various adult education courses. The vocationaltrainingsectorincludesMBOandotherformsofapprenticeshiplearning.Thecoursesareofferedatfourdifferentlevels.

Theadult-educationsectorconsistsoffourdepartmentsandismeant for thosewhohavepassed theage limit (eighteen) forcompulsoryeducation.Theseare:

· general secondary education courses (HAVO and VWOcourses);

· courses directed towards operating in society, includinglanguage skills (including Frisian for those living in Frys-lân),arithmetic,andsocialskills;

· Dutchasasecondlanguage(forimmigrants);and

· othercoursesaimedatself-development.

Specialattentionshouldbegiven to theactivitiesof theAfûk.TheAfûk offers evening classes to adult students of Frisian(both first and second-language students) and also producesteaching and learningmaterials.Afûk courses are subsidisedby theprovinceofFryslânandbyanumberofmunicipalities.Around one thousand people attend Afûk-language classeseachyear.TheAfûkalsoprovidescourses fordistance learn-ing.Forthispurposeteachingandlearningmaterialsaredigital-isedwithintheprojectEdufrysk.Thelessonsandmaterialsaredownloadablefromtheirwebsite.

The Folkshegeskoalle Schylgeralân is a cultural college that

offers informaleducation toadultscoveringabroadspectrumofsubjects,includingactivitiesconcerningtheFrisianlanguageand culture. An intensive language learning course of twoweeks isscheduledannually,which isorganised incollabora-tionwithAfûk.

language use Frisian can be used as an element of a literacy course.Most courses make little use of Frisian in their programmes

language courses


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(Noordermeer & Renkema, 1995). Specific teaching materialhasbeendevelopedfortheteachingandlearningofbasicskillsinFrisian,whichtakesthefirstlanguageofadultnativespeak-ersofFrisianintoaccount.IngeneralthepositionofFrisianinadulteducationismarginal.

statistics In2006,886people tookaFrisiancourseat theAfûk fororalskills, and67 tooka course forFrisianwritingskills. 246stu-dentsgotacertificate.


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8 Educational research

bilingual education Educationalresearchinto(theeffectsof)bilingualeducationin

Fryslân isratherscarce.Worthmentioningarethe inventoriescarried out by the Inspectorate (Inspectie van hetOnderwijs,1989, 1999, 2001, 2006). These reports provide basic dataonmany aspects of Frisian at primary and secondary schoollevel, e.g. the amount of time spent on Frisian as a schoolsubjectandasmediumofinstruction.Adetaileddescriptionofall aspects concerning Frisian in education from pre-primaryprovisionstohighereducationandadulteducationisavailableintheperiodicalreportsthataresubmittedbythenationalgov-ernmentoftheNetherlandstotheCouncilofEurope.

Within the European perspective, initiatives have been takenwith regard to theapplicationofCEFR forFrisianbydefiningsocalled“cando”-statementsaswellasgoodexamplesoftheLanguagePortfolio.Furthermore,thepositionandtheresultsofFrisianineducationhavebeenanalysedinEuropeanperspec-tive in thereportTheDevelopmentofMinimumStandards forEducation in Regional and Minority Languages (De Jager &VanderMeer,2007).

language proficiency DeJongandRiemersma(1994)conductedaresearchproject

inwhichthelanguageproficiencyinbothFrisianandDutchattheendofprimaryschoolweretestedonequalfootingforthefirst time.Theyusedcomparative testsbasedon thenationaltestsforDutchattheendofprimaryschool.Theauthorscon-cludedthatproficiencyinDutchwasadequateorgood,where-asproficiency inFrisian leftmuchtobedesired,withreading,oral,andwritingskillsyieldingparticularlymediocreresults.

quality of Frisian Furthermore,Ytsma (1995) investigated the quality of Frisian

among Frisian and Dutch-speaking pupils in primary schoolgrades five and eight, as well as their attitude towards and


36

motivation for learning Frisian. Ytsma concluded that amongtheFrisianchildrentestedDutchhadaffectedthequalityoftheirFrisianandthatDutchchildren’sattitudestowardsFrisianwereoftennegative.

trilingual education The Fryske Akademy conducts scientific research into the

trilingual-educationprojectwhichwassetupincooperationwithTaalsintrum Frysk of CEDIN by monitoring the children’s lin-guisticprogress longitudinally.Resultsfromthefirst twoyearsshow that Frisian children (between four and six years old)are already capable bilingual speakers, whereas their Dutchschoolmates have not yet developed a command of Frisiancomparable to mother tongue proficiency. Results after eightyearsshowthatthereisnodifferencewithregardtothecom-mandofDutchbetweenchildrenfromtheprojectschoolsandthoseofthecontrolschools.FrisianspeakingchildrenhavethesamecommandofDutchasthosefromDutchspeakinghomes.Contrarytotheexpectationsthechildrenoftheprojectschoolsdo not achieve higher resultswith regard to the commandofEnglishthanpupilsfromthecontrolschools.ThefactthatmostschoolsusedEnglishasamediumof instructionfor lessthan20%oftheirteachingtimemayexplainthisresult(Ruijven,van&Ytsma,2008).

pre-school education Overthelastyearsaspecialresearchprojectfortheyoungest

childrenhasbeencarriedout,towitthedevelopmentofalan-guageinstrumentforassessingthelanguageskillsofchildrenofoneyearandninemonthsupanduntil fouryearsand twomonths. The main research question is the sequence of theacquisitionoflanguagestructuresinFrisian(Dijkstra,2008).

forthcoming research Actual research concerningFrisian in educationwhich is car-

ried out at the Fryske Akademy over the last years, wasconcentrated on the developments and results of trilingual


37

schoolingaswellasthedevelopmentofminimumstandardsforeducationinregionalorminoritylanguagesinEurope.

In thecomingyears researchprojectswill concentrateon theimprovement of the quality of teaching and will focus on thecomparisonsbetweenlanguagecommandofDutchandFrisianofpupilsatseveralstagesofprimaryschool.

Intheyears2007-2011,asanintegralpartoftheprovincialpoli-ciestowardstheincreaseofFrisianatschoolandtowardstheimprovementofteachingandlearningofFrisianinallstagesoftheeducationcareer,aseriesofresearchprojectswillbecar-riedout.Thecommonnameofboththelanguagepolicyprojectand the researchproject isBoppeslach.One focuswillbeonthecomparisonof linguistic competencies inbothFrisianandDutchinallstages,frompre-schoolprovisionsuntiltheendofcompulsoryschooling.Anotherfocusofresearchwillbeontheachievementofkeyobjectives inbothprimaryandsecondaryeducation,ontheadequateuseofnewteachingbookssuchasStudioFandFreemwurk,inparticularaimedattheacquisitionofvocabulary, readingskills,and theattitude towards readingskillsandlinguisticdiversity.


38

9 Prospects

pre-school education At pre-school level, the amount of monolingual Frisian pre-

schoolprovisionsisexpectedtoincreaseslowly.ThepolicyoftheSFBOisdeliberatelyaimedatanincreaseinthenumberofFrisianpre-schoolprovisionstoonehundredbytheyear2010.TheseambitionsaresupportedbytheprovincialgovernmentofFryslân (ProvinsjeFryslân,2007).Anotheraim is to influencePartoer and theROCs in their education policieswith regardto theawareness raisingofmultilingualism in societyand theassetsofpersonalplurilingualism.

primary education Issues in primary schooling include copingwith amultilingual

and multicultural school population. This also relates to thegrowingnumberofimmigrantchildrenintheprovince.

AproblemishowtomotivateschoolsfurthertoteachFrisianadequately. Nowadays, primary schools are confronted withmanyfar-reachingadministrativeandorganisationalchanges.In light of all these changes, itwill be important for them tokeep theirattention focusedonFrisianeducation. In relationtothis, itmaybe important tomentionthat in2001theprov-inceofFryslânandthecentralgovernmentoftheNetherlandsagreedtoinvestmoremoneyinFrisianeducation.Inpractice,however, the central government tends to decentralise theresponsibility for Frisian in education to the province and tofreeze the financial contribution from national resources. ApositivedevelopmentinthisrespectistheappointmentofaninspectorwithspecialresponsibilityforFrisianatbothprimaryandsecondary level.Aconcreteresult followingthisappoint-mentistheintroductionoftherenewedframeofreferenceforthe assessment of Frisian in education, aimed at the evalu-ation of Frisian lessons. This frame of reference also aimsat the improvement of the quality of all aspects of teachingand learning of Frisian and at stimulating the improvementof an explicit language policy at school level. This frame of


39

referencewillbeappliedbyall inspectors inspectingschoolsinFryslân.

secondary education Atsecondaryschool level, the implementationofFrisianasa

compulsorysubjectforallstudentshasnotyetachievedthere-sultsthatwereexpectedasaresultofthechangeoftheWVO1993.ItisclearthatthefuturepositionofFrisianinsecondaryeducationwillbeamajorissueintheyearstocome.Theambi-tionsoftheProvincialGovernmentofextendingtrilingualedu-cationtosecondaryschools,whichincludestheuseofFrisianandEnglishasmediumofinstruction,areworthmentioninginthisrespect(ProvinsjeFryslân,2007).

higher education Theteacher-trainingcollegesofNHLHogeschoolandStenden

HogeschoolarecurrentlydevelopingacommoncurriculumforFrisian aimed at setting criteria for the qualification ‘Frisian’for primary schooling. In the years to come, the cooperationbetweenteachertrainingforprimaryandsecondaryeducationwillfocusonthelongitudinalapproachoftrilingualeducationinFryslân.


10 Summary statistics

Type of education number of schools enrolmentPre-primaryeducation 300 7,500

Primaryeducation 486 62,815

Specialprimaryeducation 13 2,050

Secondaryeducation* 30(58locations) 60,670

Specialsecondaryeducation 17 2,377

SeniorVocationaleducation 3 22,000

Highereducation 3 17,000

Table 1: Number of schools and student enrolment in Fryslân in the school year 2006-2007 (Source: Provinsje Fryslân, 2007; various websites of educa-tional institutes in Fryslân). * Data for the school year 2005-2006.

Year Law Function

Publication in the Staatsblad (Bulletin of Acts and Decrees)

1937AmendmenttothePrimaryEducationActof1920

Frisianispermittedasanoptionalsubjectinprimaryeducationundertheclassificationofvernacularlanguage(FrisianwasnotyetexplicitlymentionedintheAct).

1937;no323

1948AmendmenttotheSecondaryEducationAct

Secondaryschoolsaregiventheopportunity,afterobtainingtheconsentoftheMinisterofEducation,toprovidetuitioninsubjectsotherthanthoselistedintheAct(FrisianwasnotyetexplicitlymentionedintheAct).In1948,theMinisterofEducationprovidedfinancialsupportforFrisianasanoptionalsubjectatsecondaryschools.

1948;no127

1952RoyaldecreetoamendtheUniversityStatute

Frisiancouldbechosenasamainsubjectinhighereducation(introductionofthe‘doctoraal’(universitydegree)examinationofFrisian).

1952;no635

1955AmendmenttothePrimaryEducationAct1920

Frisianwasexplicitlymentionedasanoptionalsubjectinprimaryeducation.Frisianwasalsopermittedasamediumofinstructioninthefirstformsofprimaryschools.

1955;no225

1967

AmendmenttotheSecondaryEducationAct1963

Frisianallowedasanoptionalsubjectinsecondaryeducationfrom1968onwards;inthefirstformofsecondaryschoolsthesubjectofFrisiancouldbeincludedwithinthenumberofteachinghourspermittedbylaw.

1967;no386


1970 Royaldecree

Regulatingthefinalexaminationsinpre-universityeducation(VWO),seniorgeneralsecondaryeducation(HAVO),andjuniorgeneralsecondaryeducation(MAVO).Frisianpermittedasanoptionalfinalexaminationsubjectatthehigherlevelsofsecondaryeducation(VWO,HAVO,andMAVOschools).

1970;no151

1974AmendmenttothePrimaryEducationAct

FrisiantaughtasanordinarysubjectinallprimaryschoolsintheprovinceofFryslânfrom1980onwards(theProvincialExecutiveofFryslânwasgiventhepowertograntexemptions).Frisianpermittedasmediumofinstructioninallgradesofprimaryeducation.

1974;no271

1982

InterimActonspecialeducationandspecialsecondaryeducation(ISOVO)

Frisianpermittedasalanguageofinstructioninspecialprimaryandsecondaryeducation. 1982;no730

1988 AmendmenttoISOVOof1982

Frisianlanguageandculturetobeacompulsorysubjectinschoolsforspecialeducationandspecialsecondaryeducation.Frisianallowedasasubjectinschoolsforspecialsecondaryeducation.

1988;no559


FrisianbecomesanordinarysubjectinbasiceducationatallsecondaryschoolsintheprovinceofFryslânfrom1/8/1993onwards.

1992;no270

1993PrimaryEducationKeyObjectivesOrder

Orderadoptingkeyobjectivesforallsubjectsinprimaryeducation;alsoadoptingkeyobjectivesforthesubjectofFrisian.

1993;no2641998;no3542005;no551

2004 WetKinderopvang 2004;no455


ProvincialGovernmentofFryslângiventhepowertograntexemptionofFrisianasacompulsorysubjecttoindividualschools.

2006;no281

2006SecondaryEducationKeyObjectivesOrder

Keyobjectivesforthelowergradesofsecondaryeducation,includingobjectivesforFrisianasasubject,withdifferentiationbetweenspeakersofFrisianasafirstorsecondlanguage.

2006;no316

Table 2: Main official texts regulation the teaching of Frisian (Source: Dutch government and authors). Publications digital available at http://www.overheid.nl/ (only from 1994).


42

Year Document Publication

1970

Governmentpositionof1970ontheRapportvandeCommissieFriese-taalpolitiek(reportoftheVanOmmenCommitteeonFrisian-languagepolicy).

TweedeKamerzitting1969-1970,10728,nr.2(1970).Availableat:http://www.liigl.nl/

1989

1993

2001

BestuursafspraakFriesetaalencultuur-BestjoersôfspraakFryskeTaalenKultuer(BFTK).Covenant(=Administrativeagreement)ontheFrisianlanguageandculturebetweenthecentralgovernmentandtheprovinceofFryslânonthepolicywithregardtoFrisian.Originallydraftedin1989andrenewedin1993and2001.

Staatscourant2001;no125.Availableat:http://www.overheid.nl/

Table 3: Reports and policy documents on the Frisian language in the Nether-lands (Source: Dutch government and authors).


43

Year Document Publication

1950

SignaturebytheNetherlandsoftheVerdragtotbeschermingvanderechtenvandemensendefundamentelevrijheden(EuropeanConventionfortheProtectionofHumanRightsandFundamentalFreedoms),concludedinRomein1950.Containsaprovisionprohibitingdiscriminationonthebasisoflanguage.

Availableat:http://www.overheid.nl/&http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/Onderwerpen/Verdragen

1954

ActapprovingfortheNetherlandstheEuropeanConventionfortheProtectionofHumanRightsandFundamentalFreedoms.Instrumentofratification,31August1954

Staatsblad1954;no335

1978

ActapprovingfortheNetherlandstheInternationaalVerdraginzakeburgerrechtenenpolitiekerechten(InternationalCovenantonCivilandPoliticalRights),concludedinNewYorkin1966.Instrumentofratification,11December1978.

Staatsblad1978;no624&availableat:http://www.overheid.nl/&http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/Onderwerpen/Verdragen

1992

SignaturebytheNetherlandsoftheEuropeesHandvestvoorregionaletalenoftalenvanminderheden(EuropeanCharterforRegionalorMinorityLanguages),concludedatStrasbourgin1992

Availableat:http://www.overheid.nl/&http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/Onderwerpen/Verdragen

1996

ActapprovingfortheNetherlandstheEuropeanCharterforRegionalorMinorityLanguages,concludedatStrasbourgin1992.TheNetherlandsundertakestobeboundby48provisionsofPartIIIoftheCharterregardingtheFrisianlanguageintheprovinceofFryslân.Instrumentofacceptance,2May1996.

Staatsblad1996;no136

2005

ActapprovingfortheNetherlandstheKaderverdraginzakebeschermingvannationaleminderheden(FrameworkConventionfortheProtectionofNationalMinorities),concludedatStrasbourgin1995

Staatsblad2004;no681&availableat:http://www.overheid.nl/&http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/Onderwerpen/Verdragen

Table 4: European and international conventions relevant to the Frisian language and culture (Source: Dutch government and authors). Publications digital avail-able at http://www.overheid.nl/ (only from 1994).


Education System in the Netherlands

EU

RY

BA

SE

T

HE

NE

TH

ER

LA

ND

S

25

2.4. General structure and defining m

oments in educational

guidance

Organisation of the education system

in the Netherlands, 2008/09

BA

SISON

DER

WIJS

HA

VO

HA

VO

Asso

ciate Deg

ree

(AD

)

HB

O

WO

VM

BO

PR

AK

TIJKO

ND

ERW

IJS

41

23

56

78

911

1213

1415

1617

1819

2021

2223

2425

2627

10

NL

VMBO

MB

O V

AK

OP

LEIDIN

G

MB

O M

IDD

ENK

AD

ERO

PLEID

ING

MB

O B

ASISB

ERO

EPSO

PLEID

ING

MB

O A

SSISTENTO

PLEID

ING

VW

OV

WO

Pre-primary – ISCED

0 (for w

hich the Ministry of Education is not responsible)

Pre-primary – ISCED

0 (for w

hich the Ministry of Education is responsible)

Prim

ary – ISCED 1

Single structure – ISCED 1 + ISCED

2 (no institutional distinction betw

een ISCED 1 and 2)

Low

er secondary general – ISCED 2

(including pre-vocational)

Lower secondary vocational – ISCED

2

U

pper secondary general – ISCED 3

Upper secondary vocational – ISCED

3

Post-secondary non-tertiary – ISCED

4

Tertiary education – ISCED

5A

Tertiary education – ISCED 5B

Allocation to the ISCED

levels:

ISCED 0

ISCED 1

ISCED 2

Com

pulsory full-time education

Compulsory part-tim

e education

Part-tim

e or combined school and w

orkplace courses

Additional year

-/n/-

Compulsory w

ork experience + its duration

Study abroad

Source: Eurydice.

There is limited form

al educational provision in the Netherlands for children under four (see chapter 3.). Early

childhood education is geared to children aged 2 to 5 who are at risk of educational disadvantage.

Most children start prim

ary school at the age of four, although they are not required by law to attend school

until the age of five. On leaving prim

ary school basisonderwijs at the age of about 12 (after eight years of

primary schooling) children choose betw

een three types of secondary education voortgezet onderwijs :

VMBO

(pre-vocational secondary education voorbereidend middelbaar beroepsonderw

ijs: four years), HA

VO

(senior general secondary education hoger algemeen voortgezet onderw

ijs: five years) and VWO

(pre-university education voorbereidend w

etenschappelijk onderwijs: six years). VM

BO is a type of secondary

education introduced in the 1999/2000 school year to replace VBO and M

AVO

. There are four learning pathw

ays in VMBO

:

● basic vocational program

me;

● m

iddle-managem

ent vocational programm

e; ●

combined program

me;


45

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Lager-Onderwijswet (1920). Available at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~remery/Wetten/wet-lo-1920-001-202-tekst.pdf [Accessed April2010].

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Ytsma,J.(2000).TrilingualPrimaryEducationinFriesland.In:J.Cenoz&U.Jessnereds.English in Europe: The acquisition of a third language (222-235).Clevedon:MultilingualMatters.Partlyavailableat:http://books.google.com/[AccessedApril2010].


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Ytsma, J. (2002). Case study: An experiment with trilingualprimary education in Friesland. In: D. Beetsma ed. Trilingual primary education in Europe: Inventory of the provisions for trilingual primary education in minority language communi-ties of the European Union(pp.43-50).Ljouwert/Leeuwarden:FryskeAkademy/MercatorEducation.Availableat:http://www.mercator-research.eu/[AccessedApril2010].

Ytsma, J. & D. Beetsma (2001). Drietalig basisonderwijs inFryslân. In:H.Giesbersed.Moer. Tijdschrift voor het Onder-wijs in het Nederlands (pp.3-10), vol. 33,no.1.Availableat:http://www.vonmoer.nl/&http://www.fa.knaw.nl[AccessedApril2010].

Zondag,K.ed.(1993).Bilingual education in Fryslân: Facts and prospects.Ljouwert/Leeuwarden:GemeenschappelijkCentrumvoorOnderwijsbegeleidinginFriesland.

Zondag, K. (2009). Lange oanrin, koarte sprong. Annotearre bibliografy oer it twatalich ûnderwiis yn Fryslân yn de jierren 1945-1970, mei in ynlieding.Ljouwert/Leeuwarden:KoenZond-ag.Available at: http://images.tresoar.nl/download/zondag-bib-lio.pdf[AccessedApril2010].


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Addresses

official bodies Berie foar it Frysk(FrisianLanguageBoard)c/oProvinsjehûs,P.O.Box20120,8900HMLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582925878F+31(0)[email protected]://www.berie.nl/

Council of EuropeEuropeanCharterforRegionalorMinorityLanguagesDirectorateGeneralIV-Education,CultureandHeritage,YouthandSportF-67075StrasbourgCedex,FranceT+33(0)388413186F+33(0)[email protected]://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/default_en.asp

Provinsje Fryslân(provincialadministrationoftheProvinceofFryslân)Snekertrekweg1,8912AALjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box20120,8900HMLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582925925F+31(0)[email protected]://www.fryslan.nl/

scientific Fryske Akademy (Research institute forFryslânand itspeo-ple,languageandculture)Doelestrjitte8,8911DXLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box54,8900ABLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582131414F+31(0)[email protected]://www.fryske-akademy.nl/

research


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Wadden Academie(WaddenAcademy)HuisvoordeWadden,Ruiterskwartier121a,8911BSLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]://www.waddenacademie.knaw.nl/

Wetsus – centre for excellence for sustainable water technologyAgora1,8934CJLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]://www.wetsus.nl/

educational Afûk (adulteducationcentre/publisher)Bûterhoeke3,8911DHLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box53,8900ABLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582343070F+31(0)[email protected]://www.afuk.nl/

EdufryskWhttp://www.edufrysk.com/

TomkeWhttp://www.tomke.nl/

CEDIN/Taalsintrum Frysk (School advisory centre/FrisianLanguageDepartment)Lavendelheide21,9202PDDrachten,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]@taalsintrum.nlWhttp://www.cedin.nl/-http://www.taalsintrum.nl/

Partoer CMO Fryslân (Centre for Social Development inFryslân)Westersingel4,8913CKLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlands

advice


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P.O.Box298,8901BBLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582348500F+31(0)[email protected]://www.partoer.nl/

Sintrum Frysktalige Berne-opfang (SFBO, Organisation forFrisian-mediumplaygroupsanddaycarecentres)P.O.Box298,8901BBLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]://www.sfbo.nl/

Stichting Lezen(ReadingFoundation)OxfordHouse,NieuwezijdsVoorburgwal328G,1012RWAm-sterdam,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)206230566F+31(0)206240039Whttp://www.lezen.nl/

Frisian Ried fan de Fryske Beweging (Council of the FrisianMovement)Keetwaltsje1,8921EVLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]://www.fryskebeweging.nl/

Jongereinferiening Frysk Ynternasjonaal Kontakt (FYK,YouthAssociationFrisianInternationalContact)P.O.Box2548,8901AALjouwert/Leeuwarden,[email protected]://www.fyk.nl/

education AOC Friesland(agriculturaltrainingcentre)Gardeniersweg 2, 8933 AA Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, TheNetherlandsP.O.Box675,8901BLLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582534000

organisations


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F+31(0)[email protected]://www.aocfriesland.nl/

CITO(NationalInstituteforEducationalAssessment)NieuweOeverstraat50,6811JBArnhem,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box1034,6801MGArnhem,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]://www.cito.nl/

Friese Taal en Cultuur (the department of Frisian LanguageandCultureoftheUniversityofGroningen)OudeKijkin’tJatstraat26,9712EKGroningen,TheNetherlandsc/oRijksuniversiteitGroningen,P.O.Box716,9700ASGronin-gen,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)503635944F+31(0)[email protected]://www.rug.nl/let/onderwijs/bachelor/fries/index

Friesland College(regionaltrainingcentre)FC-Campus, gebouw Kalmoes B, Julianalaan 97, 8931 AHLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box1781,8901CBLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected]://www.frieslandcollege.nl/

Hogeschool Van Hall Larenstein (university of appliedsciences)Agora1,8934CJLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box1528,8901BVLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)317486262F+31(0)[email protected]://www.vanhall-larenstein.nl/


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Inspectie van het Onderwijs(DutchInspectorateofEducation)P.O.Box2730,3500GSUtrecht,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)886696000F+31(0)886696050Whttp://www.onderwijsinspectie.nl/

NHL Hogeschool(universityofappliedsciences)Rengerslaan10,8917DDLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box1080,8900CBLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582512345F+31(0)582511950Whttp://www.nhl.nl/

Onderwijsinstituut Neerlandistiek (Department of DutchStudiesoftheUniversityofAmsterdam)P.C. Hoofthuis, Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, TheNetherlandsT+31(0)[email protected] http://www.uva.nl/over_de_uva/object.cfm/793D8930-F294-43CC-AA2686EBFE34612D

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen(UniversityofGroningen)P.O.Box72,9700ABGroningen,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)503639111Whttp://www.rug.nl/

ROC Friese Poort(regionaltrainingcentre)P.O.Box140,8900ACLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582849340F+31(0)[email protected]://www.friesepoort.nl/

SLO (Stichting Leerplan Ontwikkeling - National Institute forCurriculumDevelopment)PietHeinstraat12,7511JEEnschede,TheNetherlands


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P.O.Box2041,7500CAEnschede,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)534840840F+31(0)[email protected]://www.slo.nl/

Stenden Hogeschool(universityofappliedsciences)Rengerslaan8,8917DDLeeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box1298,8900CGLeeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582441441F+31(0)[email protected]://www.stenden.com/

Universiteit Leiden(LeidenUniversity)Rapenburg70,2311EZLeiden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box9500,2300RALeiden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)715272727F+31(0)[email protected]://www.leidenuniv.nl/

Wageningen UniversityGebouwnr. 400, Costerweg 50, 6701 BH Wageningen, TheNetherlandsP.O.Box9101,6700HBWageningen,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)317480100F+31(0)[email protected]://www.wageningenuniversity.nl/

further Common European Framework of Reference for Languag-es: Learning, Teaching, Assessment(CEFR)LanguagePolicyDivision,DGIV,CouncilofEurope,F-67075StrasbourgCedex,FranceF+33(0)[email protected]://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Linguistic/CADRE_EN.asp

information


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Kultuerside(generalwebsiteonFrisianlanguageandculture)Whttp://www.kultuerside.nl/

Omrop Fryslân(regionalbroadcastingcompany)Suderkrúswei2,Ljouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box7600,8903JPLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)582997799F+31(0)[email protected]://www.omropfryslan.nl/

Tresoar (Frisianhistoricalandliterarycentre)Boterhoek1,8911DHLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsP.O.Box2637,8901ACLjouwert/Leeuwarden,TheNetherlandsT+31(0)587890789)[email protected]://www.tresoar.nl/


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Other websites on minority languages

Mercator http://www.mercator-network.euGeneralsiteoftheMercatorNetwork.Itgivesinformationaboutthenetworkandleadsyoutothehomepagesofthepartners.

Mercator http://www.mercator-research.eu/Homepage of the Mercator European Research Centre onMultilingualism and Language Learning.Thewebsite containstheseriesofRegionaldossiers,adatabasewithorganisations,abibliography,informationoncurrentactivities,andmanylinkstorelevantwebsites.

Mercator-Media http://www.aber.ac.uk/~merwww/HomepageofMercator-Media.ItprovidesinformationonmediaandminoritylanguagesintheEU.

Mercator- http://www.ciemen.org/mercatorHomepage ofMercator-Legislation. It provides information onminoritylanguagesandlegislationintheEU.

European http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/languages -of-europe/doc139_en.htm

On the website of the European Commission information isgivenontheEU’ssupportforregionalorminoritylanguages.

Council of http://conventions.coe.intEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992)andFramework Convention for the Protection of National Minor-ities(1995).EuropeanTreatySeries148and157,Strasbourg.

Eurydice http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/index_en.phpEurydiceistheinformationnetworkoneducationinEurope.Thesitesprovides informationonallEuropeaneducationsystemsandeducationpolicies.

Commission

Legislation

Research Centre

Europe

Network


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What can the Mercator Research Centre offer you?

Mission & goals TheMercatorResearchCentreaddressesthegrowinginterestin multilingualism and the increasing need of language com-munitiestoexchangeexperiencesandtocooperateinaEuro-peancontext.ItisbasedinLjouwert/Leeuwarden,thecapitalofFryslân–abilingualprovinceoftheNetherlands–andhostedat theFryskeAkademy (FrisianAcademy).TheMercatorRe-searchCentrefocusesonresearch,policy,andpracticeinthefieldofmultilingualismandlanguagelearning.Thecentreaimstobeanindependentandrecognisedorganisationforresearch-ers,policymakers,andprofessionals ineducation.Thecentreendeavours to favour linguistic diversity within Europe. Thestartingpointliesinthefieldofregionalandminoritylanguages.Yet,immigrantlanguagesandsmallerstatelanguagesarealsoatopicofstudy.Thecentre’smainfocusisthecreation,circula-tion,andapplicationofknowledgeinthefieldoflanguagelearn-ingatschool,athome,andthroughculturalparticipation.

Partners During the twenty years of its existence,Mercator Educationhascooperatedwithtwopartners inanetworkstructure:Mer-catorMediahostedat theUniversityofWales inAberystwythandMercatorLegislationhostedat theCiemenFoundation inBarcelona.TheMercatorResearchCentreexpandsitsnetworkin close cooperation with a number of partner organisationsworkinginthesamefield.ThiscooperationincludespartnersinFryslân,aswellaspartnersintheNetherlandsandinEurope.TheprovincialgovernmentofFryslânisthemainfundingbodyof the Mercator Research Centre. Projects and activities arefundedbytheEUaswellasbytheauthoritiesofotherregionsinEuropewithanactivepolicytosupporttheirregionalormi-noritylanguageanditsculture.


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Research TheMercatorResearchCentredevelopsaresearchprogrammeon thebasisof thedatacollectionsavailable.Researchactivi-ties focusonvariousaspectsofbilingualand trilingualeduca-tion, such as interaction in multilingual classrooms, languageproficiency in different languages, and teachers’ qualificationsfor the multilingual classroom. Whenever possible, researchwill be carried out in a comparative European perspective.Agoodexampleof thisapproach is thestudy ‘TheDevelopmentofMinimumStandardsonLanguageEducationinRegionalandMinorityLanguages’(2007).ResearchresultsaredisseminatedthroughpublicationsandconferencesincollaborationwithEuro-peanpartners.

Conferences The Mercator Research Centre organises conferences andseminarsonaregularbasis. Important themesfor theconfer-encesare:measurement&goodpractice,educationalmodels,developmentofminimumstandards, teacher training,and theapplicationoftheCommonEuropeanFrameworkofReference.ThemaintargetgroupsfortheMercatorResearchCentreareprofessionals,researchers,andpolicymakersfromallmemberstatesoftheCouncilofEuropeandbeyond.

Q&A Through the Question and Answer Service available on ourwebsite(www.mercator-research.eu)wecaninformyouaboutany subject related to education in minority or regional lan-guagesinEurope.

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This document was published by the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning with financial support from the Fryske Akademy, the Province of Fryslân, and the municipality of Leeuwarden.

© Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, 2007

ISSN: 1570 – 12394th edition

The cover of this dossier changed with the reprint of 2008. With the reprint of 2010 some of the content was corrected or supplemented.

The contents of this dossier may be reproduced in print, except for commercial purposes, provided that the extract is proceeded by a complete reference to the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning.

This regional dossier was originally compiled by dr. Jehannes Ytsma († 2005). Dr. Alex R iemersma (Mercator Research Centre) and dr. Sikko de Jong (former inspector for primary schools in Fryslân) wrote this third update of the dossier in 2007. Unless otherwise stated data refer to the 2005-2006 school year.

From May 2010 onwards Tjallien Kalsbeek and Saskia Benedictus-van den Berg havebeen responsible for the publication of the Mercator Regional dossiers series.

Albanian; the Albanian language in education in ItalyAsturian; the Asturian language in education in SpainBasque; the Basque language in education in France (2nd ed.)Basque; the Basque language in education in Spain (2nd ed.)Breton; the Breton language in education in France (2nd ed.)Catalan; the Catalan language in education in France Catalan; the Catalan language in education in SpainCornish; the Cornish language in education in the UKCorsican; the Corsican language in education in France Croatian; the Croatian language in education in Austria Frisian; the Frisian language in education in the Netherlands (4th ed.)Gaelic; the Gaelic language in education in the UK Galician; the Galician language in education in Spain German; the German language in education in Alsace, France (2nd ed.)German; the German language in education in Belgium German; the German language in education in South Tyrol, Italy Hungarian; the Hungarian language in education in Slovakia Irish; the Irish language in education in Northern Ireland (2nd ed.)Irish; the Irish language in education in the Republic of Ireland Kashubian; the Kashubian language in education in Poland Ladin; the Ladin language in education in Italy Latgalian; the Latgalian language in education in LatviaLithuanian; the Lithuanian language in education in Poland Meänkieli and Sweden Finnish; the Finnic languages in education in Sweden North-Frisian; the North Frisian language in education in Germany (2nd ed.)Occitan; the Occitan language in education in France Polish; the Polish language in education in LithuaniaRomani and Beash; the Romani and Beash languages in education in Hungary Sami; the Sami language in education in Sweden Scots; the Scots language in education in Scotland Slovak; the Slovak language in education in Hungary Slovene; the Slovene language in education in Austria (2nd ed.)Slovene; the Slovene language in education in Italy (2nd ed.)Sorbian; the Sorbian language in education in Germany Swedish; the Swedish language in education in Finland Turkish; the Turkish language in education in Greece Ukrainian and Ruthenian; the Ukrainian and Ruthenian language in education in PolandVõro; the Võro language in education in EstoniaWelsh; the Welsh language in education in the UK

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