Important milestone in curriculum revision with latest core objectives

State Secretary Koen Becking: “Good education starts with basic skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic and applying them in subjects like history and biology. But school also enables students to understand the ever-changing world, find their own place in it, and learn how to interact with others. The new core objectives are an important step in improving the quality of education. They are more contemporary and concrete while preventing the curriculum from becoming overloaded. The core objectives are fixed, but the teacher and school decide how to apply them.”

Jindra Divis, SLO director: “We developed the core objectives together with education. Teachers, school leaders, subject experts, curriculum experts, and many others from education collaborated to create a clear, feasible, and contemporary curriculum. It gives schools focus and space so that the quality of education can arise where it matters: in the classroom. This provides students with a solid foundation to be well prepared for their future and further education.”

The updated core objectives align with the latest insights and give teachers much more focus than before to provide good education. Instruction time is limited, so sharp choices were made when drafting the core objectives. There is now a beautiful curriculum with a significantly reduced number of core objectives (40 for primary education and 45 for secondary education) and a solid foundation for basic skills. All objectives with elaborations for primary education and the lower grades of secondary education can be found in the SLO publications.

The ministry is now formalizing the new core objectives in laws and regulations. Work is still ongoing on the core objectives for the Frisian language and part of the core objectives for students in specialized education. Additionally, SLO is renewing the examination programs for the upper grades of secondary education.

The previously tightened core objectives for Dutch, arithmetic, and mathematics are expected to take effect on August 1, 2026, and the other learning areas from August 1, 2027. However, schools do not have to wait for this. Schools and teachers can already experience the new core objectives and translate them as well as possible to their own classroom situations. They will have time and space to gradually adapt everything with help from the ministry, SLO, and other educational organizations. By August 2031 at the latest, all schools must have adjusted their educational offerings to the new core objectives.