Reforming Secondary Education in Sint Maarten; Improving Dutch Literacy among students in Sint Maarten

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate what factors are perceived to explain the feelings of former students in Sint Maarten of being adequately prepared for Dutch tertiary education in the Netherlands with regards to their Dutch literacy. It was expected that students did not feel sufficiently prepared to study Dutch tertiary education in the Netherlands. Predicted factors were didactics of teachers, demographic background of students, parental involvement and low level of Dutch language use. The sample consisted of 16 former Milton Peters College students who transferred to the Netherlands to follow Dutch tertiary education. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Concluded was that the students felt sufficiently prepared, but that their feelings changed once they were in the Netherlands. This change was caused by the gap between the level of Dutch they learned in secondary education in Sint Maarten and the level of Dutch in the Netherlands. Factors that played a role in this were difficulties with reading comprehension, insecurities about the Dutch language use and difficulty with grammar. Factors that contributed to the development of students' Dutch literacy were a high level of use of the Dutch language and the use of extra learning resources outside of school. Recommendations were to introduce a policy on only using the Dutch language in Dutch secondary education in Sint Maarten and to pay more attention to students' insecurities about the use of the Dutch language.