School Autonomy in the Netherlands

Abstract

Since the 1980s, confidence in the government's ability to govern has in the Netherlands been under fire from many directions. This has resulted in an educational policy which favours deregulation and increasing levels of autonomy for school boards and their schools. This paper demonstrates that, despite the pursuit of administrative reform, an intermediary administrative tier has come into being between the central government and schools, which further complicates the relationship between these two levels. One effect of such a buffer zone could be that, while schools and school boards continue to feel the sense of powerlessness and lack of autonomy characteristic of earlier times, the government's sense of central responsibility is weakened.