ROTTERDAM - Students from Curaçao and the other Dutch Caribbean islands stumble so often in the lecture halls that the Hogeschool Rotterdam decided to intervene. The university stops recruiting in the Caribbean until Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (education) contributes to a solution.

Every year more than 500 from the Dutch Caribbean embark to the Netherlands to study, of which about two hundred go to the Hogeschool Rotterdam. Their dreams are big, but their success is small. Three quarters do not reach the finish line and that means: no diploma, an illusion poorer and a study debt richer.

Director Ron Bormans of Hogeschool Rotterdam can no longer accept this. The students are still welcome, but he will stop recruiting. Hogeschool Rotterdam is no longer present on overseas study markets. His employees no longer provide information in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire. “It does not feel good to let students come here if I know in advance that the chance of a diploma is very small,” he says.

According to Bormans, it comes to the differences. Many Dutch Caribbean youths do not have Dutch, but Papiamento as their first language. The culture is also different here, not least because Dutch students deal less hierarchically with teachers. “And there is the lack of warmth, literally, and the security of home. Some students also suffer from prejudices that make them feel misunderstood.”

The high dropout rate of the students is problematic. Because the student debt with a Caribbean salary can hardly be repaid, many young people with no qualifications remain here. While in the Netherlands the chances of a well-paid job are also small without paper, which again leads to unemployment. And in the meantime, the islands are losing their intelligent youngsters.