The Secretary of Education, Culture and Science wants more possibilities for new schools and has announced a set of measures to achieve this objective. The ministry has asked SEO Amsterdam Economics and Oberon to provide advice on the further specification of this set of measures. Under what conditions will the scenario of policy measures chosen by the ministry have the desired effects for primary and secondary education? In other words, what are the factors that the ministry needs to keep in mind when further developing the announced measures?

The greatest challenge in this regard remains considering the various effects of measures on different policy goals, such as the number of new schools and the quality of those new schools. For instance, when a new school is founded the expected quality of the school could be subject to strict rules in order to guarantee high-quality schools. However, given the fact that it is impossible to perfectly predict the quality that will ultimately be realized, strict rules could also hinder the establishment of good and innovative schools. The report concludes with listing various possibilities to strengthen the scenario in order to achieve the desired policy goals.

The report is based on preliminary studies that were conducted by SEO Amsterdam Economics and Oberon in collaboration with TIAS. Further information on these studies can be found here and here.