Netherlands

The Mathematics Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades

The mathematics curriculum for primary school comprises 11 core objectives.⁸ These objectives describe the desired results of the learning process, but not the way in which they are to be achieved. In primary school, students should become familiar with mathematical basics, offered in a recognizable and meaningful context. Primary school students will gradually acquire familiarity with numbers, measurements, and two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and solids, as well as the relationships and calculations that apply to them. Students will learn to use mathematical language while gaining mathematical literacy and calculation skills. By the end of primary school, students are taught how to:

• Use mathematical language
• Solve practical and formal mathematical problems and clearly demonstrate the process of finding a solution
• Identify different approaches for solving mathematical problems and learn to assess the reasonableness of solutions
• Understand the general structure and interrelationship of quantities, whole numbers, decimal numbers, percentages, and proportions, and use these to do arithmetic in practical situations
• Quickly carry out basic arithmetic calculations mentally, using whole numbers through 100, and learn the multiplication tables
• Count and calculate by estimation
• Add, subtract, multiply, and divide by taking advantage of number properties
• Add, subtract, multiply, and divide on paper
• Use a calculator with insight
• Solve simple geometrical problems
• Measure and calculate using units of time, money, length, area, volume, weight, speed, and temperature

In 2010, so-called reference levels, or benchmarks for language (Dutch and English) and numeracy, were introduced to help raise student achievement in primary and secondary education. These levels describe the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire at different stages in their school career. For numeracy in primary education, there are two important levels: the fundamental level (1F) and the advanced level (1S).⁹ The achievement level of at least 85 percent of students by the end of primary school should be at level 1F.

For the first two years of secondary school, the mathematics curriculum comprises nine core objectives.¹⁰ By the end of the first two years of secondary education (Grade 8), students should have been taught how to do the following:

• Use appropriate mathematical language to organize mathematical thinking, explain things to others, and understand explanations in the context of mathematics
• Recognize and use mathematics to solve problems in practical situations, both individually and in collaboration with others
• Establish a mathematical argument and distinguish it from opinion, learning to give and receive mathematical criticism and to respect other ways of thinking
• Recognize the structure and coherence of the systems of positive and negative numbers, decimal numbers, fractions, percentages, and proportions, and learn to work with these systems meaningfully in practical situations
• Make exact calculations, provide estimates, and demonstrate an understanding of accuracy, order of magnitude, and margin of error appropriate to a given situation
• Make measurements, recognize the structure and coherence of the metric system, and calculate with measurements in common applications
• Use informal notations, schematic representations, tables, diagrams, and formulas to understand connections between quantities and variables
• Work with two- and three-dimensional shapes and solids, make and interpret representations of these objects, and calculate and reason using their properties
• Learn to describe, order, and visualize data systematically, and to judge data, representations, and conclusions critically

For the first two years of secondary education, there are four “reference levels” for numeracy: two fundamental levels (2F and 3F) and two advanced levels (2S and 3S).¹¹