CHAPTER IX Netherlands Areas DUCATIONAL TRENDS in the Netherlands Antilles and ED Surinam are similar in many respects, and many of the same problems and needs are apparent. On the other hand, there are certain differences stemming largely from geographic, economic, social, and cultural factors. For the most part the 95 percent of the population of the Netherlands Antilles living on the islands of Curaçao and Aruba are oriented to an industrial-urban-commercial way of life based largely on one industry-petroleum refining. The majority of the population of Surinam is dependent upon agriculture for a livelihood and lives in rural areas. This is so despite the fact that the bauxite industry accounts for some 83 percent of the value of Surinam's exports and about 75 percent of governmental revenues, and that there is drift of the Surinam population to the commercial and governmental center of Paramaribo, the capital, and to the bauxite mining centers. Similarities and Differences Both the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam have the problem of widely used languages other than the official tongues employed as the media of instruction. The latter are Dutch in Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles Leeward Islands, and English in the latter country's Windward Islands, where Dutch is learned as a foreign language and is increasingly used in the upper elementary grades as the language of instruction. In the Leeward Islands the vernacular is Papiamento, which is based on Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and other tongues. In Surinam various languages are commonly spoken, including Taki-Taki, the lingua franca of the country, and several Asiatic tongues which reflect the diverse racial and cultural origin of the population. The policy of instructing in the official language has been pursued in both countries as one of the means of creating national unity through the schools, others being prohibitions against school segregation for reasons of race or religion. In both the Antilles and Surinam this policy has necessitated making students from non-Dutch-speaking homes bilingual at the earliest possible age. To meet this problem there have been estab 551394-60- 8 lished in both countries two sets of schools, for children from Dutchand non-Dutch-speaking homes. Teachers are sought who can converse with students in the latters' respective native languages, a qualification which is not common. As one means of meeting this need in the Netherlands Antilles, evening classes in Papiamento are offered under the adult education and extension program for teachers and others who do not have this facility. In Surinam there are additional problems in providing education for those of Asiatic origin, whose cultural practices differ from those of the Occident. Many of them live in rural areas and are largely unintegrated with other groups. In both the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam the organizational patterns and structure of education are based on those of the Netherlands, with variations and adaptations resulting from local conditions. Both countries face the problem of a rapidly increasing population and demand for education, with a limitation on the financial resources available for the purpose. Each of these "statutory partners" in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, enjoying co-equal political status with the Netherlands proper, is responsible for financing its own educational facilities and receives no regular assistance in this respect from the Mother country. Because of its more favorable economic situation, the Netherlands Antilles is able to devote to education a higher percentage of government funds and a higher expenditure per capita than is Surinam. In both the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam education is, as in the British affiliated Caribbean territories, a joint venture of the Government and private organizations, the latter being largely religious bodies. The Government contributes on the same basis to the costs of public and aided private schools. In the Netherlands Antilles this may include some contributions to capital expenditures, while in Surinam it generally does not. The preponderance of schools in the Antilles are church-affiliated and the vast majority of these are Catholic. In Surinam there is a sizeable minority of Government schools and most denominational schools are either Catholic or Moravian Brothers (Protestant) in affiliation. General programs of study and Government inspection are identical for public and government-supported schools. Both the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam have the objective of affording the opportunity of 6 years of elementary education for all. Whereas it is generally accepted that practically all children of elementary school age (6-12) are enrolled in school in the Antilles, it was estimated in 1955 by an official Surinam source that somewhat more than 20 percent of schoolage children in that country, principally in rural areas, were receiving no formal education owing to a lack of schools, overcrowded conditions, unstable family situations, and the use of child labor in agriculture.1 Nevertheless, prior to that date the enrollment ratio of children of school age had steadily increased in recent decades. It appears that this ratio has further increased since 1955, as a result of the construction of new schools to the full extent funds permit under Surinam's 10-Year Development Plan. The problem is the familiar one of a sizeable increase each year in the schoolage population and the difficulty of adding facilities fast enough to meet the need for additional classrooms and to replace outworn buildings. In the Netherlands Antilles education for those of elementary school age is not compulsory, while in Surinam it is for those of the 7 to 12 age group. Legally, this obligation may be met by parents in their own way, not necessarily through school enrollment. In any case, it has been unenforceable in certain localities because of the deficiency of classrooms. Some separate schools have been established in Surinam, largely by religious groups, for education of the Bush Negroes and Amerindians (indigenous American Indians) of the interior. The Bush Negroes are the descendants of former slaves who escaped to the interior where they set up their own villages and community life. The Government has continued to permit their autonomous existence. Schools for these groups provide a basic education for children and adults. Both the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam have the problem of a shortage of teachers and facilities for training them. Surinam has several separate teacher-training institutions at the secondary level, while the Antilles trains teachers, as discussed later, in a separate program of the secondary schools. In both countries there are growing demands for additional secondary and vocational education, still in their infancy. Facilities for higher education are generally lacking both, though Surinam has a law school and a medical school at this level giving certain training. Those desiring higher education in both countries usually try to win government or other scholarships for study in the Netherlands. Adult Education is relatively new, both areas having initiated evening classes of instruction. In Surinam, a Director of Adult Education was appointed in 1958 to supervise a new Department in that field. With its rural and hinterland areas and its diverse racial and cultural groups, Surinam has also begun activity in community education and development. 1 "The Social and Economic Background of Education in Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles," Education Generally and in Relation to Economic and Community Development, Caribbean Commission, WIC/6, Document No. 2 (Trinidad, 1955), p. 7. Educational Pattern in the Netherlands Antilles Because of its special situation in the Caribbean area, the Netherlands Antilles is proposed for somewhat more detailed consideration of its educational trends here. The geographic, economic, and social background of the educational problems and needs of Surinam is, in certain respects, similar to that of its adjoining neighbor, British Guiana. The Netherlands Antilles, on the other hand, is unique among the European affiliated Caribbean areas in being the only one that has developed the largely industrial-urban-commercial economy previously mentioned. It also represents an interesting combination of centralization and decentralization in the administration of education, as compared with the centralized system of Surinam. It is largely for these reasons that of the two Netherlands affiliated areas, we have chosen the Antilles for more detailed consideration. At the same time it is recognized that the same basic Dutch structural pattern of education present in the Antilles is also found in Surinam and that from this point of view and others, much of what will be said about education in the Antilles has its counterpart in Surinam. Economic Background The modern development of education in the Netherlands Antilles begins with the economic transformation brought about by the establishment of the petroleum refining industry in the 2d and 3d decades of the 20th century. Prior to that time opportunities for more than a subsistence living were few. The natural resources and wealth of the Antilles were limited, with agriculture being almost entirely precluded on Curaçao and Aruba by reason of the semi-arid climate and the rocky soil. Government revenues from local sources were not sufficient to meet the budget, and the Netherlands Government was obliged to make up the deficit. Only small sums were available for education, which remained in a generally underdeveloped state. As a result of the establishment of large petroleum refineries on Curaçao (1916) and on Aruba (1929), economic and social conditions changed. Employment opportunities in Curaçao and Aruba resulted in a large influx of population from many sources, and the other Dutch islands of the Caribbean were drained of much of their labor force. As of January 1958, the population of the Antilles as a whole was estimated at about 190,000, of which some 95 percent, as noted, were found in Curaçao and Aruba. Only 3,700, or not quite 2 percent of the total Antillean population, remained in the Netherlands Windward Islands as of that date, with the remaining 3 percent on Bonaire. |