Life-long learning to foster Dutch skills?

Integration minister Eberhard van der Laan is considering bringing in new measures to require all Dutch nationals to meet basic educational standards, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

The measure would be used to make sure all immigrants take an integration course and learn Dutch, the minister said in a note to parliament on Tuesday. The aim is to prevent young children starting school with a disadvantage because they do not hear Dutch at home, the minister said.
Language lessons could be made compulsory for all Dutch citizens by extending the concept of compulsory schooling, currently five to 16, into a life-long requirement, the Volkskrant said.
At the moment, some immigrants can avoid taking the course through legal loopholes. ‘Parents, children and society are better served when parents speak Dutch as well as possible,’ Van der Laan said.
Earlier, in an interview with news website nu.nl, Van der Laan said not speaking Dutch is a ‘tragedy for children and society’. These children ‘are twice as likely to drop out of school, three times as likely to be unemployed and five times as likely to come into contact with police and the justice system,’ the minister said.
But legal experts told the paper the minister’s plan leaves a lot of unanswered questions. For example, there has never been a link made between a parent’s language skills and a child’s school performance, which would make the introduction of compulsory education for parents impossible, they said.