Some 191,000 secondary school pupils will find out on Wednesday if they have passed their school leaving exams and whether or not they can hang out their rucksack on a flag pole in celebration.

Most pupils – some 96,000 – come from vmbo or vocational streams. A further 56,000 are in the pre-college havo stream and 39,000 in the pre-university VWO.

New arrivals to the Netherlands may be surprised to notice rucksacks hanging on flagpoles for the next few days – a tradition that shows the school is over for the children concerned. 

Nevertheless, the tradition of hanging out a bag is a fairly new one, and dates from around the 1960s, according to culture historian Piet de Boer . 

Although schools started hanging out flags after World War II, it was not until 1965 that the Parool noted a school bag hanging on a flag pole on the Amstelkade, he said.

Gradually more homes began hanging streamers and balloons outside alongside the Dutch flag and despite efforts to ban the use of the flag – reserved for royal use only – the practice has only grown since then. 

Repeats for those who did not pass first time and need to retake one or two subjects are in the week of June 18.