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One of the specific effects of the development of the oil industry was a drastic increase in personal and governmental income. By 1924 the government budget of the Antilles area as a whole was balanced from local revenues, and it became possible to begin making more substantial provision for education. At the same time, the continuing increase in the population posed problems in keeping facilities abreast of the demand for education. Various types of buildings were converted into schools, and new schools have been built at an accelerated pace, particularly since World War II. There remains a difference between the facilities of schools in the central and the outlying areas of Curaçao and Aruba. The Windward Islands and Bonaire with their generally underdeveloped economies are largely dependent for the provision of educational facilities upon the financial resources of Curaçao and Aruba. The agricultural, livestock, and small industry and handicraft nature of their economies poses a different problem in meeting educational needs than do those of Curaçao and Aruba. Overall, the result of the Antilles' economic development has been to provide sufficient facilities to enable practically all children to obtain a 6-year elementary education.

Administration

With respect to the administration of education, governmental responsibilities are divided between the central Government of the Netherlands Antilles and the Governments of its component islandterritories. Articles 139 and 140 of the Netherlands Antilles Constitution of 1955 give the Antilles Government general power and control over education. Article 139 states that "The National Government shall continuously spread enlightenment and culture and promote the arts and sciences." Article 140 contains several provisions on the educational powers of the Antilles central Government, including the following:

Education shall be a subject of constant care of the National Govern

ment.

Public Education shall be regulated by National ordinance with due respect to individual religious beliefs.

Adequate public general elementary education shall be provided by the Government in an adequate number of schools. By national ordinance certain deviations from this provision may be permitted in connection with the financial position of the Territory.

Despite the general constitutional authority which the central Government may exercise over education, the granting of island autonomy in the Netherlands Antilles, to which reference was made in the first chapter, set the pattern for the partial decentralization of educational administration. In 1953 the educational ordinance

of 1935 for the Antilles as a whole was amended so as to delegate to the island-territory Governments responsibility for a wide area of educational administration and financing in their respective territories. Included among the educational functions of the insular governments are the initial and primary responsibility for enforcing all educational laws, the construction of schools, the appointment and retirement of public-school teachers, the payment of all teachers whether in public or private schools, and in general the day-today operation and administration of government functions and responsibilities in education. The Antilles Government retains for itself the authority to prescribe basic educational legislation, and through the Ministry of Education, the supervision, or inspection, of all schools, the organization of examinations, and the ultimate enforcement of all educational legislation and national regulations. Thus, in practice it may be said that the national government has the legal authority to exercise basic and ultimate control over education in the Netherlands Antilles, while day-to-day administration falls to the island-territory Governments. The authority of the central Government is exercised through the Ministry of Education and National Culture, and each island-territory carries out its educational responsibilities through an Education Section or Department in the local Government.

Governmental financial responsibility for education is regarded as primarily that of the insular Governments. The central Government makes contributions for school construction and operating costs, particularly for Bonaire and the Windward Islands, where it was supplying most of the funds for educational purposes in 1958. In the more affluent island-territories of Curaçao and Aruba, about 50 percent and 30 percent of the respective insular government budgets were going for education at that time.2 On the basis of these percentages and official estimates of revenues and expenditures of the central Government and of the Governments of Curaçao and Aruba, it appears that some 25 to 30 percent of the combined central and insular government budgets were being devoted to education in the years 1955-57.

As noted, education in the Netherlands Antilles has been accepted as a joint responsibility of government and private agencies, the latter being principally religious bodies. This is largely a development of the 20th century. Prior to 1907 the barrier to government financial support for Catholic schools was almost insurmountable because of the "neutrality" article in educational legislation, which,

2 Netherlands Antilles Government Information Service, The Netherlands Antilles: Their Geography, History, and Political, Economic, and Social Development, Second Edition (Curacao, 1958), p. 54.

as a condition for the award of government subsidies, required teachers to "refrain from teaching, doing or allowing anything incompatible with the respect due to the religious beliefs of others." 3 In that year a new educational ordinance came into effect which scrapped this article. Since 1907, and particularly since 1922, the scope of government subventions to private schools has been repeatedly widened, concurrently with the increase in public revenues available for education, but it was not until 1935 that a special educational ordinance established the system of equal subventions for private and government elementary education. This special ordinance has been amended and extended a number of times since then so that today private schools at all levels are supported almost entirely by public funds. The Constitution of the Netherlands Antilles of 1955 states in Article 140 that "Public and denominational education-the latter to the extent it fulfills the conditions established by national ordinance shall be financed from public funds on an equal basis."

The same curriculums, programs of study, and general regulations are prescribed by governmental edict for private subsidized schools as for public schools, and the former are subject to the same general supervision and inspection. Teachers in public and aided private schools are regarded as belonging to the same system insofar as matters of qualifications, certification, salaries, and status are concerned. Appointment and dismissal of teachers are the responsibility of the body or agency actually operating the particular school, with similar standards and administrative procedures generally followed for teachers in public and aided private schools to ensure similar treatment. The legal basis for these regulations is found in provisions of Article 140 of the Netherlands Antilles Constitution, which reads as follows:

Anyone has the right to provide educational services, subject to government inspection in accordance with national ordinance, and to examination of the ability and morality of the teachers under national ordinance.

The required high standards of education to be paid entirely or in part from public funds shall be regulated by national ordinance with due observance to freedom of belief so far as denominational education is concerned.

These required high standards for general elementary education shall be set in such a manner that proper education at denominational schools which is entirely paid from public funds and at public schools shall be equally well guaranteed. Such regulation shall specifically respect the freedom of the denominational schools in the choice of educational means and the appointment of teachers.

3 UNESCO, World Survey of Education, II, p. 754.

School Enrollment Increase

Total school enrollment has steadily increased in the Netherlands Antilles, as has the ratio of enrollment to total population, and as we shall see later, to school age population as well. Approximately 49,000 were enrolled in regular school programs (not including adult education) at the end of the calendar year 1957. This figure represented about 25 percent of the total population as compared with the 22 percent of the population enrolled in school in 1954, the 21 percent of 1958, the 17 percent of 1946, and the 13 percent of 1938. The increase in school enrollment during this period is evident from the following figures:

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With respect to the division of enrollments between public and private schools, the vast majority of schools in the Netherlands Antilles are aided private schools, and they have enrolled a similar preponderant majority of the school population. At the end of 1959 about 78 percent of all schools were private institutions, most of these being Catholic in affiliation, thus reflecting the heavy preponderance of Catholics in the population. Between the years 1951 and 1957, inclusive, the proportion of total school enrollment attending Catholic institutions remained in the neighborhood of 75 percent. At the end of the latter year, of the total recorded school enrollment of about 49,100, some 37,000 were found in Catholic schools.⭑

Elementary Level

Education in the Netherlands Antilles has been almost exclusively kindergarten and elementary education. In the Dutch-oriented system of education found in the Antilles, the elementary system includes the basic elementary course of 6 or 7 years given in socalled GLO schools (Gewoon Lager Onderwijs, or Ordinary Elementary Education). Also forming part of the elementary education system is "continued elementary education" given in so-called

4 Statistics given in this chapter are largely taken from and based on three sources. These are the UNESCO World Survey of Education, II, p. 754-759; Nederlandse Antillen, Bureau Voor de Statistiek, Statistisch Jaarboek, 1957 (Netherlands Antilles, Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Yearbook, 1957); and the mimeographed report "Algemeen Overzicht Toestand op 31 december 1957" (General Summary as of December 31, 1957), issued by the Netherlands Antilles Ministry of Education and Culture. Additional figures were supplied directly by education officials in the Governments of the Netherlands Antilles and Curaçao.

ULO schools (Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs), which offer the regular GLO program and add 1 or 2 years of education beyond this. In 1957–58, ULO schools were found only on St. Martin and Bonaire. Their place on Curaçao and Aruba was taken by the MULO schools (Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs, or Advanced Elementary Education) which provided 4 years of schooling beyond GLO education, sometimes in the same school buildings and sometimes in different buildings. Thus, the total number of years of education possible in 1957-58 in the elementary system in the Netherlands Antilles was 7 or 8 on all islands save Aruba and Curaçao, where it was 10. Of the total of some 49,000 enrolled in school at the end of 1957, over 47,000 were kindergarten, elementary, continued elementary, and advanced elementary students. The remainder were enrolled in institutions for secondary, vocational, and special education.

There has been a steady rise in the school enrollment ratio of those in the full elementary age group over the past 30 years. This rose from an average of 61 percent in the early 1930's to about 77 percent for the first half of the decade of the 1950's. These figures are based on estimates of the numbers in the 5 to 14 age group and enrollments in elementary, continued elementary, and advanced elementary schools. If we accept the statement that practically all of the 6 to 12 age group are enrolled in school, the figure of a lower enrollment ratio for the 5 to 14 age group as a whole must result from a sharp fall off in school enrollment after age 12. This is borne out by figures showing the limited number of those enrolled in classes (grades) 7 through 10 of the MULO schools from 1938 through 1956, as well as by the relatively small numbers of the post12 age group enrolled in the 7th and 8th classes of the ULO schools and in the regular secondary and technical schools. As noted previously, school attendance is not compulsory in the Netherlands Antilles, and while this does not appear to be a deterrent to enrollment in the first 6 classes, or grades, the introduction of compulsory attendance has been contemplated "with a view to combatting early school leaving and thus developing the continued elementary schools." 5

Education is free in the regular 6- and 7-year elementary, or socalled GLO-b, schools, and also in the 7- or 8-year ULO schools of Bonaire and St. Martin. GLO schools were listed until 1954 as GLO-a or GLO-b, for children from Dutch- and non-Dutch-speaking homes, respectively. For children in Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire, GLO-b schools were intended largely for children who came from homes where Papiamento was the spoken language. Begin

5 UNESCO, World Survey of Education, II, p. 754.

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