Legal Mandate for Citizenship Education in the Netherlands

See the original article here: https://www.onderwijsinspectie.nl/onderwerpen/burgerschap/wettelijke-opdracht

As of 1 August 2021, new legal requirements for promoting citizenship in (special) primary, secondary and special education apply. This legal mandate to promote ‘active citizenship and social cohesion’ clarifies the 2006 citizenship mandate. For MBO there are the long-standing legal requirements as laid down in the qualification requirements for citizenship.

Legal requirements and freedom of education

The Legal Citizenship Mandate underlines that promoting citizenship and social cohesion is a task that requires focused attention from schools. Schools have a lot of room to decide for themselves how they want to organize their citizenship education. Freedom of education is also an important starting point here.

The inspectorate is responsible for monitoring compliance with the law. That law sets out minimum requirements that every school must meet. Furthermore, citizenship education can be completed in a way that suits the mission of the school or institution. Schools and institutions can therefore take into account what pupils or students need and what parents and the environment want. And they can connect their civic education with their philosophical vision and ideas about education and learning.

Requirements of soundness

The task of promoting citizenship is a so-called virtue requirement. There is an obligation to make an effort, which requires governments to do everything necessary to fulfill the mission of promoting citizenship, so that the school education meets the legal requirements. The legal provisions must therefore be implemented in practice and visible at school.