Introduction

            “As I explained to the cardinal and members of the church, my book is the people determine the constitution and the constitution”. Words once said by Mahatma Gandhi, clearly showing that religion cannot suppers the will of the people. Sometimes we take religion so seriously forgetting that there are none believers amongst us. We even end up dropping their perspectives and beautiful ideas that would have worked, if only we listened. This perspective can just be changed and dealt with in the education system. In the Netherlands, the majority of the population are secular, while the Catholics outnumber the Protestants leaving the Muslims as the minority group. Statistics showed that in 2015, 50.1% of the adults’ population in the Netherlands was none religious (Le moon, 2015). This displays a better picture of why only secular education can change and make civil society stronger. The Netherlands government funds both state schools and religious schools equally (BIJSTERVELD, 2019). Which according to me should not be the case, considering that the majority population is non-believers then the state or the secular schools should be given more attention? This should be a concerning issue considering state schools produce more students than the religious schools. Meaning, if secular education is supported, then it can and will provide citizens who will strengthen civil society.

Current Policies

The civil society in the Netherlands gets weaker every day due to lack of understanding between the religious and non-religious citizens. The policies put in place are doing so little to change this. These policies include equality and quality by giving and ensuring a strong and equal start in education to all students. Preparing students for the future through an effective transition to the labor market. Improving schools by fostering good teaching practices and leadership. The evaluation and assessment of schools to enhance the student’s results by trusting the institutions to provide quality education(The Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 2008, 2008).  Good governance where the school boards implement the centralized policy with a high degree of school autonomy. Lastly, all schools public and private receive equal funding (“National Reforms in School Education – Eurydice – European Commission,” 2019). All these policies are good and have helped the education system in the Netherlands grow tremendously. But what about the civic qualities of the students produced from these institutions. There is no single policy to support that; putting in mind, this is a secular nation. The proposed policies, none is still addressing the issue. The proposed policies are quite many, but I will focus on two. More teachers will be allocated to the classrooms due to the regional approach teacher shortage. The other one is that small schools will receive more funding to ensure growth.

Alternative Policies

The policy alternatives that will support secular education for a stronger civil society in the Netherlands are the following;

• Faith schools to have no quotas
• Only the secular schools to receive the subsidy
• Maximum allowances and not affirmative action.
• Religion to be taught as part of civic education.

The first policy is that faith-based schools should not get any quotes from the government. The existing quota is that they should at least admit 25% of students who are not from that faith or are non-believers. By doing so, the government will give the school administration the freedom to choose what and who they want to admit. It will make much difference to both the teachers and students if the school decides to accept members of other faiths voluntarily. Secondly, the school will not desperately look for or admit students they did not want. Meaning they have been admitting students for the sake of fulfilling the policy, which is dangerous for maybe they were not changing their curriculum to fit in the 25% (G.Biesta, 2015).

The second policy is the government to support secular education by funding secular schools. This will enable the schools to expand and admit a more significant population. The students will learn how to live with each other despite the color, religion, etc. as they are mixed not forgetting they make up 50.1% of the population. The funding will also contribute to the absorption of more teachers ensuring that the students get a quality education.

The government to ensure that in public schools the affirmative action is replaced with quotas. E.g., the maximum number of students to be admitted from other countries. Affirmative action is not taken well by the society as they believe it was not their doing that, that particular group was discriminated in the past. The community wants to move on, each one to receive equal opportunities and let us forget the past.

Lastly, religion should be taught as part of civic education. The secular schools admit students from all kind of backgrounds form pagans, Christians, Muslims, etc. hence religion should be taught under civic education to help the students understand different faiths and maybe absorb the positive values from each religion.

Recommendations

            These policies should be absorbed into the system and implemented by both the government and the educational institutions in the country. Although these policies are not perfect here are some of their setbacks; removal of quotas from faith-based schools may end up the institutions teaching radical teachings to the students. Public schools receiving more subsidies, this may cause other institutions to be poorly managed, or the respective board members may misuse even the resources. Teaching religious education under civic education may spark and bring out the differences between the students, which may end up ugly.

Conclusion

The implementation of these policies will strengthen civil society as a whole. More effort should be placed where the heart of the nation lies. From numbers, it is clear that the non-religious people take the day. Hence more resources should be invested in them and train each one equally without considering religion and teaching positive values that ran across each background. Then, and only then will the secular education have made civil society stronger.

References

National Reforms in School Education – Eurydice – European Commission. (2019). Retrieved from https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/national-reforms-school-education-47_en

WRITING A POLICY PAPER. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.yorku.ca/lfoster/2007-08/sppa4115a/York%20-%20Policy%20Paper%20Modules/Policy_Paper_Writing_The_Extended_Version.htm

Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. (2008). The Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 2008 (p. 8). https://www.government.nl/binaries/government/documents/regulations/2012/10/18/the-constitution-of-the-kingdom-of-the-netherlands-2008/the-constitution-of-the-kingdom-of-the-netherlands-2008.pdf

Biesta, G. J. (2015). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Routledge.

Le moon, Y. (2015). European educational Research journal. Education And Diversity In Netherlands. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/eerj.2008.7.1.50

BIJSTERVELD, S. (2019). Religion and the Secular State in the Netherlands. Retrieved from https://www.iclrs.org/content/blurb/files/Netherlands.pdf

How to Write a Policy Report | Synonym. (2019). Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/how-to-write-a-policy-report-12080775.html