In its annual education supplement, the Trouw newspaper says 25 percent of all mid-level vocational (VMBO) schools in the Netherlands are performing badly.

The paper reports that many students are graduating with inflated grades, even though many of them score unsatisfactorily in the national core subjects of Dutch, English and Maths. The students graduate, says the paper, because the schools hand out high marks for the other part of the final grade: the individual school tests. This camouflages their poor performance in other areas.

The paper says secondary schools - HAVO and VWO schools - perform much better.

The Schools Inspectorate has reacted calmly to the Trouw’s report because, it says, the paper looked mainly at the results of the national exams. The Inspectorate says the quality of a school depends on more than that one factor.