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Netherlands

Score on the GALE Checklist

ItemForbiddenDiscouragedNo policyEncouragedSupportedNo dataComment
1. Full access to schools?   x  no comments
2. Freedom of self expression?   x  no comments
3. Protection against bullying?   x  no comments
4. No drop-out?     xno comments
5. Equal performance?     xno comments
6. Is there public information?    x no comments
7. Attention in school resources?    x no comments
8. Resources for LGBT students?  x   no comments
9. Support services open to LGBT?   x  no comments
10. Peer-learning opportunities?   x  no comments
11. Is staff supportive?   x  no comments
12. Is staff competent to teach?   x  no comments
13. Is staff competent to support?   x  no comments
14. Supportive school environment?   x  no comments
15. Employment protection for staff?    x no comments

The score is 0% forbidden (denying), 8% discouraged or no policy (ambiguous), 92% encouraged or supportive (supportive). We score this country therefore as supportive.

Relevant Conventions

Convention against Discrimination in Educationnot signed signed ratifiedsuccession
Convention on Technical and Vocational Educationnot signedsigned ratified succession
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rightsnot signed signed ratifiedsuccession
Convention on the Rights of the Childnot signed signed ratifiedsuccession
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Womennot signed signed ratifiedsuccession

The Nederlands

Welcome on the GALE page concerning the Netherlands. On this page we try to give an overview of LGBT issues in schools in the Netherlands. We cannot pretend to be complete. For more information, contact the GALE contact person in the Netherlands: Peter Dankmeijer.

Legal context

The most important law is the general law on equal treatment, that prohibits employers to discrimination of education staff. This law requires no preventive policy and is not related to students. Students can require protection against sexual harassment on the basis of the communicating and declaration duty act on sexual intimidation. There are some other laws that could be invoked but in practice Dutch homosexual students never and homosexual teachers seldom use of this legislation.

Educational directives

Attention for sexuality and sexual diversity is mandatory in primary and secondary schools sins the end of 2012. However, many schools (especially primary schools) ignore this requirement. In secondary education many schools limit themselves to inviting LGBT educvators for a one hour session. Politically, the attention is shifting towards better monotoring by the School Inspectorate and to teacher training.
Schools are obliged to have a security plan and to appoint a social safety coordinator. How they write this is their own responsibility. Schools hate to be specific about target groups.

Attitudes and behavior

Approximately 15% of teachers and approximately 50% of the students do not want come out at school. In practice, visibility of LGBT students is much lower than 50% because most students will onlky come out to their best friends. Approximately 30% of the students say they will take a social distance towards LGBT students (like not wanting to sit in the same bench, doing homework together or go to a project week together). Students with an Islamic background are more negative.
A small majority of the students (60%) thinks there should be clear rules against homophobia. Almost three-quarter of the questioned students (73%) thinks that school information concerning LGBT issues should be supplied openly.

Strategic obstacles

Schools do not want tackle sexual diversity explicitly as a component of their security policy. The weariness to make specific policies is the most important obstacle. Moreover the apprehension for violent responses of students (on LGBT student and on teachers level) and the lack of visibility to the problems (at Executive Board level) is a large obstacle also.
A National Alliance for Sexual Diversity in Schools ("Onderwijsalliantie Seksuele Diversiteit"), consisting of the Public and Christian Trade Unions, EduDivers, COC Netherlands, and the Foundation for School Safety worked together from 2007 until 2017 to make national and education organizations and schools more sensitive to sexual diversity. The national alliance lost funding and disbanded after COC Netherlands claimed a monopoly on the national funding on LGBT and education, to which the Ministry of Education agreed. Edu-Diverse, whuich was focussed on mainstreaming sexual diversity in schools, had to cease activities in 2020 due to loss of funding and exclusion from politics and banning from the websites of COC Netherlands and the MOVISIE national expertise center on LGBT issues. The current activities of COC Netherlands focus on supporting LGBT students by means of Young & Out groups, the promotion of Gender and Sexuality Alliances and supporting local LGB peer education groups.

Strategic opportunities

There is currently an alomost complete monopoly on advocating for LGBT policy and delivering interventions by COC Netherlands. It is the view of COC Netherlands that mainstreaming of sexual diversity in the education sector should be done by making lessons about LGBTI issues mandatory and to require this by law. This legal strategy was successful; educating about sexual diversity is mandatory in primary and secondary education since 2102, and in vocational education since 2019. However the implementation leaves much to wish for: although most schools have good intentions, the implemention is often marginal and there are serious questions if it is effective (source: report of the Education Inspectorate, 2016). However, the government is not willing to take additional measures to stimulate or support a more effective implementation. The COC hopes that more control by the Education Inspectorate will achieve better implementation, but the Inspectorate is not capable to do this in-depth due to lack of staff and mandate, and also lacks effective measures to force schools to implement the guidelines. There is a need for a stronger push on different levels to implement not only education sessions but also a broader school safety policy in general and specifically for LGBTI. However, a 2020 GALE report on this did not get any support from the LGBT movement or from education authorities, so the current strategic opportunities to improve the situation seem to be minimal.

Interventions

Links to interesting articles

Literature

Members

This page was last updated on 11 October 2011.