Some 145,000 secondary school pupils start their national school leaving exams on Friday, with philosophy and Dutch on the menu for teenagers in pre-college Havo streams and art and economics for VWO pupils. Pupils at VMBO trade schools face maths.

Exams for some 40,000 pupils in the lowest trade school streams started in April at a time chosen by the schools themselves.

As in previous years, pupil organisation Laks has opened its exam complaints hotline, where pupils can register exams which they felt contained mistakes, or other problems, such as noisy exam rooms and a lack of time.

This year for the first time Laks is also opening a “stress” hotline, where pupils can report feeling under too much pressure. Pupils are under increasing pressure to perform well, the organisation said, adding that it “wants to offer a listening ear”.

The exams run until May 27 and the results are known around two weeks later.

School pupils in the Netherlands take two sets of exams at the end of their time in secondary school. One set of exams is set by the school itself and the other are set nationally.

Most pupils – around 93,000 – are taking VMBO exams, with around 55,000 taking Havo and 35,000 VWO. The Dutch system of streaming children at the age of 12 has also come in for considerable criticism in recent years, with the national schools council, school inspectors and the SCP think-tank all calling for change.