Car Rental Netherland

Education:

Now a day in Netherlands, School attendance is compulsory for children from 5 until 16 years of age. Pupils attend a primary school for six years and then enter one of several types of secondary schools, which offer either academic or vocational training.

Since the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, the Netherlands has enjoyed a high level of basic education and comparatively high literacy rates.

In the 19th century efforts were made to systematize education and to secure adequate financing for schools. As the state became more deeply involved in education, a dispute arose concerning the fate of non-public, mainly Church-related, schools.

The so-called school struggle became a major political issue and was not fully settled until 1917, when a constitutional amendment was passed guaranteeing equal state support for both public and non-public schools.

Today, about one third of elementary and secondary schools are public, and about two thirds are non-public, mainly Roman Catholic or Protestant. In 1995 1.21 million pupils attended primary, or basic, schools, and about 1.42 million students were enrolled in secondary, vocational, and teacher-training schools. In 1996, 5.1 per cent of gross national product (GNP) was devoted to education.

The number of students enrolled in institutions of higher education increased dramatically in the 1960s, and by 1996-1997 some 468,970 students attended colleges and universities. Major institutions include the University of Amsterdam (founded 1632) and the state universities of Groningen (1614), Leiden (1575), and Utrecht (1636). The Netherlands has several technical universities and schools of fine arts.

Language:

The official language Dutch is spoken throughout the country. In the northern province of Friesland, however, a large percentage of the population speaks another Germanic language, Frisian, as its first language.