A Dictionary of Dutchness

VWO

VWO (voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs) is the highest level of Dutch secondary education and is followed by some 15% of all pupils. A VWO education takes six years, with pupils specialising in the arts or sciences after three. There are two streams: atheneum or gymasium. Gymnasium pupils take Latin and Greek in addition to the 14 or so other VWO subjects on the curriculum.