THE HAGUE – Dutch Members of Parliament Raoul White and Anita Pijpelijk have submitted critical parliamentary questions to State Secretary for Education Mariëlle Paul, raising concerns about the persistent challenges in the education systems of Caribbean Netherlands and the ABC islands. Their questions follow the recent legislative proposal to integrate the Education and Vocational Training Act (WEB BES) and the Social Opportunity Trajectories Act (SKT BES), aimed at narrowing the gap between education laws in European and Caribbean Netherlands. 

The MPs ask whether the government also plans to introduce improvements for primary education in Caribbean Netherlands, noting disparities that still exist despite efforts toward harmonization. They specifically highlighted long-standing quality issues in schools on Bonaire and St. Eustatius, which, according to inspection reports, took extended periods to meet basic education standards. A secondary school on St. Eustatius reportedly still failed to meet these standards in 2024. 

White and Pijpelijk further question whether similar educational problems exist on Curaçao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten—the CAS islands—and whether the Dutch government acknowledges the need for broader reforms there as well. 

One of the key concerns raised is the importance of Dutch language education, especially in light of the limited availability of reading materials and teaching resources in Papiamentu, a language spoken widely on the islands but considered small-scale compared to Dutch, Spanish, or English. The MPs emphasize that their support for Dutch language education does not undermine the value of Papiamentu as the mother tongue for many students. 

They also referred to the book “Taal: brug of barrière?” (Language: Bridge or Barrier?), which argues that replacing Dutch with English as the main language of instruction would not solve the educational issues and could even worsen them. The MPs asked whether State Secretary Paul shares this view. 

Finally, they questioned whether the current education quality inspection criteria used in Caribbean Netherlands need to be revised and whether this topic will be addressed in the upcoming Four-Country Ministerial Consultation on Education, Culture, and Science (OCW). 

The questions reflect growing concern in The Hague about structural inequalities in education between the European Netherlands and its Caribbean counterparts and raise the pressure on the Dutch government to take more decisive and inclusive action.