A group of schools, teachers and school boards are taking textbook publication into their own hands by creating a cooperative publishing house. Their objective is to regain control over educational contents, which is now held by a small group of private publishing houses, and to make textbooks more affordable, sustainable and specific for students in the country.
Neon, the Netherlands Education Institute (Nederlands Onderwijsinstituut), is the name of the project, which described itself as a ‘large group of teachers, school leaders and school boards working together to create better, more sustainable and more affordable textbooks for our students.’ As of right now, it consists of twelve school boards (with around 70.000 students), and the cooperative expects that by the end of the year, fifty boards will join, representing half a million students, or 20% of all primary and secondary students in the country.
Their main incentive behind the project is that currently schools have little say in the contents of the books that are used to teach students. Their project’s aim is to develop textbooks taking into account the teachers’ own teaching methods, with contents that will be frequently updated and are highly customizable in a way that better fits plural groups and styles.
Until now, the majority of the textbook market has been controlled by a handful of publishing houses, mainly Noordhoff, Malmberg and Thieme Meulenhoff. They develop the materials and sell the books to schools, along with a digital license for online content use. In the last few years, several members of the education sector have criticized that educators have little control in creating educational content, and that the standard books are very expensive. Earlier this year, unions, professional associations and sector employers sent a letter to the House of Representatives claiming that there is ‘widespread unease in the education sector about the quality of learning materials and the functioning of the market. The current market is dominated by a limited number of large commercial players. These publishers are failing to develop learning materials that meet the needs of teachers and students.’
Already in 2024, educational organizations and unions issued a manifesto in which they decried the lack of control over educational resources, the limited freedom of choice and the high costs. Additionally, they explained that ‘schools are forced to pay for resources they don’t need and don’t use. Every year, a mountain of workbooks ends up in the trash. Moreover, sometimes teaching materials have to be purchased for the entire student population, even though only a small part of them actually use these books.’
The sustainability factor is important, given that under the current model, instead of purchasing textbooks that last several years, schools have to buy workbooks that are discarded yearly, so three-quarters of the books go to the trash every year.
Thus, the threefold objective of Neon is more control over content development, in a more sustainable and more affordable way. It estimates that prices can go down from the current €340 per year per student, to around €20 per year. However, the trade association of schoolbook publishers MEVW has raised doubts as to whether this can be done while maintaining high quality standards.
Neon is currently looking for colleagues in the education sector to join their project. It expects their first books to be published by 2027.
Written by Juan Álvarez Umbarila