Between 20,000 and 30,000 secondary school pupils are being educated below their abilities, Trouw reports on Tuesday. The paper bases its claims on education ministry figures.

Children are sent to the wrong type of secondary school either because they either don’t get the test marks they are capable off, or because their primary school teachers have low expectations of them, the paper says.
Dutch children are divided into different education streams at the age of 12, one of the lowest ages in Europe. Once categorised as an vmbo pupil (vocational training) it is very hard to cross the divide into academic higher education the paper says.