Eindhoven is home to many heritage language schools!

A heritage language school is a program that offers children the opportunity to develop one of the languages they speak at home or that is part of their cultural heritage.

Holland Expat Center South organizes Expat Language

Lounges where you can speak directly with language school instructors in the region. Check our website for more information!

Heritage language (mother tongue) schools provide the opportunity for multilingual children to follow lessons in a language they speak at home, but are not able to study at school. The Eindhoven region is fortunate to have this valuable form of education available in over twenty languages!

Heritage language education falls outside the scope of the Dutch education system. The lessons are usually organized by nonprofit initiatives and take place after school or in the weekend throughout the school year.

Heritage language education is a universal right according to UNESCO

Parents want their children to be able to connect with other people who speak the same language, to learn to read and write in the home language, and to understand the traditions of the culture. It has been shown that a strong foundation in the home language leads to greater social and academic success overall for multilingual children.

Purpose

Heritage Language Education Network (HLE Network) is a platform that ensures that families, Dutch schools, and education advisors can easily find information about the available programs. The HLE Network website has school lists as well as news, event info, and other resources.

HLE Network

Eindhoven is proud to be the home of many heritage language schools! Among the languages on offer (or expected to become on offer) are: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Mandarin & Taiwanese), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indian (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, & Malayalam), Italian, Korean, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

Check the website for an up-to-date list of schools: www.hlenetwork.org hlenet.org@gmail.com

Holland Expat Center South organizes Expat Language Lounges where you can speak directly with language school instructors in the region. Check our website for more information!

Education is compulsory (leerplicht) in the Netherlands from the ages of 5 to 16, however, most children start to attend primary school at age 4. While the structure of primary education in the Netherlands is straightforward, the structure of the Dutch secondary education system often seems confusing because of the multiple paths and graduation ages in high school.

In reality, Dutch secondary schools are similar to those in most other countries, with one stream to prepare students for vocational training (VMBO), and another to prepare students for university (VWO). The main difference in the Netherlands is that there is a third, middle, stream in high schools that prepares students to study at universities of applied sciences (HAVO).

Dutch Schools

Education in the Netherlands consists of the following levels:

● Pre-Primary Education

● Basisschool (Primary Education)

● Secondary Education (VMBO, HAVO, VWO)

● Tertiary Education:

- Vocational Education (MBO and company schools)

- University of Applied Sciences (HBO)

- Research University (Universiteit)