Education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt says separate sex classes are ‘conceivable’ following calls at the weekend for the move by Wim Kuiper, head of the school board group Besturenraad which represents 540 Christian schools.

Kuiper told Trouw that separating girls and boys into different school classes would help decrease the gap in educational attainment between the two.
‘We think it’s logical to put pupils of the same age together, but it’s taboo to have pupils of the same sex in the same class,’ says Kuiper, who wants schools to experiment with the idea in some subjects such as languages.
Such an experiment is conceivable so long as it does not lead to the shutting out of pupils from particular lessons, according to the minister’s spokeswoman. This means girls must be allowed into classes aimed at boys if they want to attend, and vice versa.
She also pointed out that the minister has already asked for more research into why boys are lagging behind in education.